Princess Atom
by PixieQueen1223
Summary: Tony and Pepper have been in a custody battle with his ex for the last decade. Now his daughter is missing and no one is sure what happened to her. It's time to call in the team and figure out just how far the apple falls from the tree. TonyXPepper & Light Language.
1. Chapter 1

Tony woke up to a loud banging coming from the floor above him. He had returned from a two week mission in Brazil, where he had been helping fellow avenger, Dr. Bruce Banner, with a pest control problem of the ten foot variety the night before. He had been soar and hungry, but mostly tired. In his exhaustion he'd collapsed in his work shop bed and fallen unconscious as soon as his fiancé, Pepper Potts, had cuddled into his side. Now he was even sorer, even more tired, and at 5:30 am, after only three hours of sleep he was still exhausted.

Pepper jumped up, telling him to go back to sleep but Jarvis' voice stopped him before he could fall back into blissful unconsciousness, "Sir, it appears to be Ms. Consetta Viglionni."

"What!" Tony shouted at he shot up. Suddenly the screen on the wall across from him kicked on and indeed, the last woman he'd had a relationship with before Pepper was banging viciously on their front door. "Is anyone else with her, Jarvis?"

Pepper held her breath as anxiously waited for the answer. Tony, and by extension she, had been in a custody battle with Consetta for over a decade. After the woman and Tony broke up she had forcefully taken their seven year old daughter to Italy just before Pepper was hired. Once she became his assistant she could only sit back and watch as he spiraled into the drunken man whore he'd become, when he wasn't trying to get his daughter back.

Even though she had never met the little girl, Pepper had become rather fond of her after watching all of Tony's home videos of his little princess. She had even continued Tony's fight when he was kidnapped in Afghanistan. Over the years there had been days when hearing Tony make his daily two phone calls to Consetta to try and convince her to let him talk to their daughter was the only thing that kept her from quitting.

Now, knowing that they were going to be married in less than two months, it killed her to see and hear the broken hope in his voice that died when Jarvis responded, "No sir, she is alone. I'm sorry, sir."

Tony didn't respond as he shook himself then looked over at Pepper, "Something must be wrong; I have to go talk to her."

Pepper smiled; for all Tony's bravado he was so worried about hurting her or disappointing her. More than that he was afraid of doing something wrong and of her walking away, "I know that, sweetie, I'll be right behind you."

He nodded before hurrying up the stairs with his fiancé close on his heels. It wasn't really surprising when Rhodey, who had been in similar shape upon their return home and had collapsed on the workshop's sofa, drug himself from his makeshift bed and fell in behind them. Rhodey was Tony's best friend and had been at the hospital when his little girl was born, as a result he had been at every annual binge fest since Tony's little princess was taken from him and would have woken from a comma to be at this confrontation.

"Would you like me to answer the door, sir?" Jarvis questioned.

"No, Jarvis, I'll get it," Tony said as he entered the foyer. Consetta was still banging on the door as he jerked it open.

As soon as the door was open Tony's entry way was filled with crazy ex-girlfriend, "Where is she, you son of a bitch!"

Tony laughed as Rhodey moved to grab Pepper who just shrugged him off with a roll of her eyes, "What are you talking about, Consetta? Is Tori okay?"

"Like you don't fucking know! You kidnapped her!" Consetta screamed so loud that it took Tony a moment to process what she'd said.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" he growled, "I haven't seen our daughter in more than a decade. What happened?"

Consetta continued to rage, "She graduated Wednesday and I haven't seen her since. It's been almost three days and she's just fucking gone; I know you took her, Bastardo!"

"Vaffanculo te, cagna stupida!" Tony shouted in perfect Italian. Pepper looked at Rhodey, who just shrugged, but they both knew whatever Tony had said wasn't exactly nice, "If I'd have taken her, you wouldn't have been able to get back into this fucking country!"

"You can't expect me to believe that you had niente to do with this!" Consetta wailed poking Tony's shoulder.

"She graduated, cagna, you said it yourself. If she's anything like me, she's blowing the money I gave you for her college on a wild party somewhere!"

"She is non ti pace; she hates you and I know that's not what's going on here!"

"The only reason she hates me is because you poisoned her by keeping her away from me! If she'd had her way, she'd have stayed with me when she was seven!" That was when Consetta suddenly attacked the billionaire. Rhodey moved quickly to put a wall between the two and Pepper moved to stand beside Tony, checking him over.

"What the hell is going on here?" came Nick Fury's voice from the open doorway; Natalie and Coulson were bug-eyed as they followed him up the steps.

"Sir," Rhodey said, "Ms. Viglionni, here, attacked Tony after accusing him of kidnapping their daughter, who just graduated high school."

Consetta looked like she was going to correct him but stopped herself. Tony made a mental note to research his daughter's school, thinking that whatever his ex was hiding might be a lead to her being missing.

"Please! **His **daughter graduating," Fury said, "sounds like the party of the century to me."

"Yeah, expecially when I just gave her a million dollar college account," Tony growled.

Fury put his hand on his hips, "We'll circle back around to giving a 18 year old…"

"Seventeen, she had a few more days to go before she's an adult!" Tony interjected.

"….that kind of cash," Fury continued like Tony hadn't said anything, "I thought you didn't have any contact with your daughter because the Italian government was unwilling to negotiate over her custody?"

Tony rolled his eyes and moved to answer but Consetta cut him off, "I told you this isn't some party! She had to be taken!"

Fury looked at the woman, "Why do you think that?"

Consetta looked down as she jerked away from Rhodey, "…Because he didn't have access to our daughter, he only had contact with me. As far as Tori knew, he'd cut us off completely."

After a moment everyone realized what she meant, "She doesn't know about the college fund; does she know about the child support?"

"There's nothing about child support in our files," Fury said, ignoring Pepper as she tried to warn him off.

When Tony turned on him with a vicious glare he realized that maybe he should have taken her advice, "Look, I don't need some dumbass judge to tell me to take care of my kid! Although I did think it was going to the welfare of the child!"

"How much were you giving Ms. Viglionni?" Fury knew it probably wasn't any of his business but he wanted to see how vindictive this woman was before they decided how to go about finding the missing girl.

"$50, 000 a month, not including when I doubled it at her birthday, Christmas, and the start of every school year, bought her first car, or gave her the college fund."

"Damn," Rhodey muttered.

Tony heard Pepper's blackberry start ringing and nodded for her to go ahead and answer it, "Are you sure she's not at a party somewhere?"

Consetta glared at him, "She thought we were barely getting by with what she was bringing in; she couldn't have gone anywhere."

Fury was so angry he spluttered for a moment before having to walk away to escape the woman. Tony turned to follow him and they headed for the workshop; suddenly the man turned back to his agents, "You and Rebecca are on babysitting duty. Take Ms. Viglionni to a hotel and then keep an eye on her."

He knew that despite Tony's playboy façade the billionaire was a good man and over time he had come to be rather fond of him and his eccentrics, "Any help you need finding her, we'll give you."

Tony nodded as they entered the shop where Pepper had escaped to take her call; from the look on her face both men knew something was very wrong, "What is it?"

"Nothing, finding Tori is more important," Pepper said.

"Pep, tell me what's going on."

Pepper sighed, "Someone hacked Stark Industries…"

Both men froze and Tony turned away from his computer, leaving it to search any movement on the name Vittoria Stark/Viglionni around the world. He felt a strange sense of violation and admiration, "Someone hacked my systems?"

"Yes, apparently they were experts. They were in and out with no trail or trace but no one knows which files were looked at or taken; they won't know for a few hours."

"It can't be a coincidence," said Rhodey as he walked in, having just seen off the agents and their guest, "Whoever took Tori must have hacked Stark Industries."

"Are we sure it was a kidnapping?" Fury asked, "The Italian government kept her identity anonymous vigorously over the last decade and I know you always tried to keep the press away from her."

Tony was back to pounding away at his key board, "All _that_ means is someone was looking! God damn it I can't let anyone hurt her!"

"Tony," Fury said pulling Tony away from the computer, "You're exhausted and not thinking straight. Sleep, give me until two, that will be eight hours. By then Stark Industries will have the results on the files taken and we'll have found some sort of lead on where she could have been taken."

"You want me to sleep while someone has my daughter!" Tony yelled.

Rhodey stepped between the two, "Tony, he's right. We can't do anything until we have something to go on. We'll be better off if we're not exhausted when something comes in."

Tony seemed torn between the facts and what his inner daddy wanted to do for a moment but finally said, "Fine but there won't be any of this eight hours crap. You get something and you call me, immediately."

"I'm going to go ahead and call the team in," Fury said as he headed for the door.

"Come on, let's go upstairs," Pepper suggested, pulling him along behind her so that he wouldn't object. Rhodey fell in behind him and they both disappeared into their rooms.

…..


	2. Chapter 2

Okay guys, of course I own nothing. I might go ahead and upload the next chapter today if I get some reviews; it's already written and just waiting in the wing.

...

Pepper walked out of her home office with news around one that afternoon. She had just received the report from Stark Industries and was fighting the urge to sink in relief; it was very possible that Tori hadn't been kidnapped at all. She entered their bedroom but noticed that the enormous king sized bed was rather empty of a certain billionaire superhero.

"Jarvis, when did Tony wake up?"

"About one hour ago, Mrs. Soon to be Stark."

Pepper rolled her eyes, "He said he'd removed that program."

"He has not done so, Mrs. Soong to be Stark."

Pepper just muted the A.I. and started heading for the workshop. She was still too worried to be upset about Tony's irritating little program for Jarvis. She hadn't really thought past Fury's phone call stating that Tori might have just run away but she knew that he wouldn't say it if he didn't have some sort of proof. Rhodey was going to take the team, who would be arriving any minute, into one of the mansion's conference rooms since Tony didn't allow more than five people in the workshop at a time.

When she entered the workshop it was dark except for the light of a big screen that was playing a family reel she had never seen before. As it started over again she noticed the date and froze; it was the day Consetta left with Tori. Tony had never wanted her to watch it even though he and Rhodey sat threw it every anniversary, over and over again as they drank an ungodly amount of liquor. As it reloaded she looked around and noted that her fiancé had been using his laptop to monitor his search for movement involving his little girl but otherwise there was nothing, such as liquor, present to inhibit him.

"_Where are we going, mommy?" Said a peppy little voice on the screen._

Pepper looked back up at the screen and stared at it for a moment. Tony still had not noticed her presence so she decided to hang back for a moment. Her future husband had always said that Tori didn't want to leave; maybe this would show what he meant.

"_Your daddy is kicking us out!" Consetta growled as she drug her bag into the foyer, her daughter following it._

_The little girl stared at her in confusion, "No… Daddy wouldn't do that."_

"_We aren't together anymore, Vittoria. He doesn't want us here anymore, now let's go!" She hissed and grabbed the little girl's arm harshly._

_Apparently the little girl was stronger than she looked because she jerked away and started backing up, "NO! Daddy doesn't want me to leave; he said I would always be his little princess, no matter what you two decided!"_

_Consetta marched forward and grabbed her, even rougher than before, "He changed his mind; he doesn't love you anymore! Now let's go!"_

_The little girl started screaming and thrashing, grabbing onto anything she could get her hands on, "No! NO! Daddy! DADDY! No, I won't leave Daddy!"_

_The woman turned on the little girl, jerking her forward before slapping her across the face and busting her lip, "I told you, he doesn't love you anymore! Now let's go!" She shoved the little girl, who was still sobbing, out the door before slamming it shut._

Pepper could see Tony's shoulders shaking as the reel started over but she stepped forward, putting her hand out to cease his shaking. He looked up at her and she could see the tear tracks streaming down his face, she wasn't much better, "You shouldn't be watching this."

"I should have been there that day; I was supposed to take her to Disney land but the board called. She wasn't even mad about not getting to go; all she cared about was me being home in time to read her Alice in Wonderland," Tony wiped the tracks from his eyes, "Did Fury call?"

"The team will be here any minute and Stark Industries called. Fury is starting to think that she wasn't kidnapped and I'm inclined to agree with him."

"Why?" Tony asked, a spark of hope igniting in his eyes.

"Consetta told Rebecca that some of her clothes, most of them actually, and all her personal things were taken; including the things on her full scholarship to MIT," Pepper was actually happy to see the devious smile that appeared on Tony's face, "and that wasn't all that was missing."

"What else?"

"Apparently Consetta had been hiding your daily calls from her… well not exactly. She twisted the court battles to say that she was trying to make you pay child support. Anyway, she told Tori that all those phone calls were either your lawyer or hers, she didn't know it was you. She kept all the phone records in a lock box to make it look like she was really trying to fight you. The box had been broken into and all the files were gone."

"My phone number was the first one she ever learned, bar 911."

"I know, that's why you never let me change it when you changed phones."

"So she took her mother's files; she must have known something wasn't right," Tony said.

"Fury thinks that when she visited MIT she heard some of the media stories about your custody battle with an 'Italian woman' but I'm not so sure. Consetta said that she did a virtual tour online, that she never actually went and she insists that Tori resented you because of the story she'd been told…"

"She doesn't have any reason not to," Tony said dejectedly and Pepper pulled him close.

She held him for a moment before continuing, "Something did have to trigger her though. The Stark Industries report; both of our personal hard drives were accessed but the only files copied were files involving the custody case; no weapons files were even given a second glance."

"You think that she's trying to figure out what happened?"

Pepper nodded, "What we still can't figure out is where she went from there. Fury said it's like she completely fell off the map; he also wanted it noted that he blames your genes for that capability."

"Of course he does. Her name popped up in an Oxford file but I'm not sure why she was there yet. Jarvis is hacking their system now," Tony said as they started toward the stairs and toward the now waiting team. "So kidnapping isn't ruled out but it's highly unlikely."

Before they could actually reach the stairs Tony put his hand out and stopped Pepper from advancing, "Do you remember when you asked me why I chose red and gold?"

Pepper had to think about it for a moment, "Yes, you said it was personal." She's actually been very hurt over the comment which he'd made a short while after she found out about Iron man.

Tony nodded, "I'm sorry about saying that to you. Pep, it was the last part of Tori that was only mine; Rhodey had already seen the clip from the day she left."

"Were they her favorite colors or something?"

Tony smiled, pulling her toward the suit, "…or something."

She watched as he pulled the chest piece of the suit off and turned it over. He popped off the piece that went over his arc reactor and showed her the SD card that was released before popping it into the closest monitor. Pepper could only watch as the seen unfolded before her in a room that she had never seen with a little commentary from her fiancé.

_Tony walked in carrying his seven year old close to his chest as she spoke continuously, seemingly without pausing to breathe. She was clinging to him after a day out on the town just the two of them which had included a private viewing of the Disney store in the local mall and Tori's favorite part, a far too fast drive down to the beach with her daddy and a topless 69 mustang, the red one, not the black._

"…_and then we have to find Belle, she's my favorite. She is going to be sooo pretty and then we have to find Mulan, she's not a princess but she kicks butt! I hope Raja isn't there, he'll eat me! But I want to go on the magic carpet ride, oh and Peter Pan, we're going to fly over London and see Nana and, maybe we could go play in the enchanted castle; could we do that, Daddy?" She asked finally coming up for a breath._

"_Yes baby, whatever you want. I'll even make sure Raja doesn't eat you," He said setting her down on her bed but she pulled him back to hug her._

"_Thank-you Daddy! You're my superhero!" She said with more sincerity then he could handle but after a moment he didn't think he'd choke up and replied._

"_Well, you'll get to meet a real superhero when we go to Mr. Queen's dinner party day after tomorrow."_

_She pulled back, seemingly affronted by his statement, "You __**are **__a real superhero, Daddy."_

_Tony shook his head, "How can I be a real superhero without a costume?"_

"_Daddy?"_

"_Yes, baby?"_

"_He wears a green leather vest with a hood."_

_Once Tony could breathe again he asked her with a chuckle, "Well, what would my costume be then?"_

"_Daddy!" She said, "Don't be ridiculous!"_

_Tony looked at her flabbergasted, "You've got me baby, what is ridiculous?"_

"_You can't make a costume until you've picked out your colors, geez, I thought you were supposed to be a genius."_

_He shook with laughter yet again, "You're right; you're always right. So what are my colors?"_

_She thought about it for a moment before running over to her CD rack and pulling out her second favorite album. She ran back over to him and shoved it in his direction, "Track number three."_

"_Firebird's Child?"_

"_Yeah, see, you're the firebird and I'm your child! Remember Fawkes from Harry Potter; he's a firebird!"_

"_He's a phoenix."_

"_They're synonyms, Dad. Are we starting the third Harry Potter book tomorrow?"_

"_I was thinking of starting something else; pick."_

"_Alice in Wonderland!"_

"_That's fine but what does Fawkes have to do with colors?"_

"_Ugh!" Tori said, throwing her hands up in the air with exasperation, "Daddy, what colors are fires?"_

"_Well technically it can…"_

"_Daddy!"_

"_Red, yellow, and orange."_

"_Orange is just red and yellow combined. So your colors would be red and gold, see?"_

"_Wait, I thought we said yellow?"_

"_Yellow is boring, Daddy. Plus, you would look like all the other firebirds; gold would make you look distinguished."_

_Tony grinned at that, "Can't have me looking like the crowd, can we baby girl?"_

"_Nope and your costume has to be able to fly everywhere!"_

"_Oh does it?" he asked, moving to tuck her in as she gave a large yawn._

"_Yep, and you'd have all this firepower!"_

_Suddenly Tony moved to hop on the bed, stretching out beside the little girl, "You have my attention!"_

_Tori giggled and curled into his chest, talking about his costume, "Well, I'll have to have a sidekick; what are your colors?"_

"_Daddy, I'm too little! Uncle Rhodey would have to be your first side kick then I'll join the team later!"_

"_Okay, what are both of your colors then?"_

"_He'd be all silver and chrome! He'd look like a bullet flying beside you, like a machine of war!"_

"_He'll be so pleased."_

"_And I'll be blue and bronze, like the Ravenclaws from Harry Potter!"_

_She continued to talk until she started to doze off a few minutes later. When her father tried to get up she stirred slightly again._

"_Daddy?"_

"_Go to sleep, princess."_

"_Mommy said we are leaving forever."_

_Tony sighed, "We were fighting, princess, and your mommy knows that I'd never let her take you away forever; I love you too much."_

"_What about for a little while?"_

"_You've gone on trips before it would still be the same if she decided to live somewhere else. You'd go visit her then come back here."_

"_Okay, good night, Daddy; I love you."_

"_I love you too baby."_

The clip ended and Tony pulled Pepper up the stairs toward the waiting team. They didn't talk and he preferred it that way; sharing wasn't his forte and he didn't want to break down twice in one day. They reached the conference room and most of the team moved to sit along the table while Fury stood at the head.

Thor and Tony, who both had narcissistic tendencies embraced quickly before moving to sit beside their girlfriends. No one had been more shocked then Jane and Pepper when their boyfriends developed the weird bromance but they decided together that as long as it didn't turn into a romance they could deal with it.

"As you've all been briefed, this morning Tony's daughter, Vittoria Stark was reported missing. This is a recent photo taken of her for her MIT file," Fury said bringing a picture up on the screen.

Tony swallowed his surprise that the beautiful young woman his daughter had become with her razor cut dark blonde hair and his mother's ocean blue eyes. Though the hair and eyes were different, everything else was just like him, even the mischievous smirk donning her flawless features.

"WOW!" Captain America said as he looked at the picture.

"Hey!" Tony said, "There will be no 'wow'ing. No wowing, no staring, and certainly no touching once we find her! If I find out any of the previously mentioned things occur I will proceed to go from superhero to super villain in about 2.5 seconds."

"Come on man!" Steve said, "She's like… WOW!"

"I can think of a hundred better words to describe her!" Hawkeye said as he too gaped at the picture.

"I swear on my mother's grave you two better not do anything stupid! I will have to kill you," Tony growled at them.

Bruce finally spoke up, "I'm still stuck on the fact that there are two of them!" he said pointing to Tony. "I mean, we can barely handle him!"

"Haha! Bite me! Can we get back to finding my daughter now?"

"Your totally hot daughter."

"Shut up!" Thor growled at a junior agent, "I don't care how you do things on earth; you're not talking about someone's kid that way in front of me!"

The young agent seemed to realize what he'd said and that all the Avengers were glaring at him because of the comment, "I'm sorry Tony."

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered, "I'll deal with your raging hormones later; I just want to find her."

"That won't be too difficult," Jarvis said rather suddenly.

Tony noted that all his teammates except for Bruce and Thor started looking around for the source of the voice and he decided to let them wonder, "What do you mean, Jarvis?"

"A call was just received from Agent Fury's office; there was one phone call made from Ms. Viglionni's line that was unaccounted for. The number was untraceable for identification of the holder but they did locate where it was recently positioned," The A.I. explained.

"And that would be where, Jarvis?" Tony demanded.

"Catalina Island, sir, just off California's coast; not only was it there but footage from Catalina's beach resulted in the following pictures."

"No one told me we'd gotten photographic evidence of the girl's location," Fury growled.

"I took the liberty of obtaining photos after your office gave me a location per Mr. Stark's search orders earlier this morning," Jarvis replied.

Suddenly pictures of his daughter in a blue bikini were filling the screen and Tony was trying to use Pepper's clipboard to either block or whack both Captain America and Hawkeye from across the table. Both men dodged the barrier and stared at the screen with wide eyes, like they had never seen a woman before. Pepper was trying to get Tony to give her back the clip board but after a moment Thor finally got involved and forced him to give it up.

"If everyone is finished acting like a three stooges movie…" Fury said, calling everyone back to attention, "Is the cell phone still at Catalina Island?"

The question was directed at Tony but Jarvis answered anyway, only serving to further confuse the Shield agent, "No but Tori Stark is. The cell phone started leaving Catalina at 12:07 P.M. this afternoon while Miss Stark stayed at the beach until 1:13 P.M. I've cross reference all the hotel rooms returned to or checked in between the time she left the beach when the destination arrival occurred. There are five possible rooms that she could be in."

"How in the hell did the ceiling figure all this out?" Steve demanded.

Tony laughed, "I built the ceiling."

"Well, now that we know she's not been kidnapped, are we still going to go after her?" Black Widow questioned.

Fury looked at Tony, "Your call. We still don't know who the cell phone belongs to."

"I'll go and find her; maybe take Thor and Rhodey with me," he stopped Steve and Hawk before they could 'volunteer', "You two are not going. I'd sooner kill us all."

"Fine," Fury said, "The rest of you are free to go; thank-you for coming in."

Once most of them had cleared out, some rather reluctantly, but all wishing Tony luck and telling him they were relieved to not have to fight on this mission, Fury sat down at the table with everyone who was left. Tony rolled his eyes slightly upward to Jarvis, "What are the rooms that she could possibly be in?"

"The five possibilities are out of three hotels, all of them directly on the beach," A list suddenly appeared on the screen, "Room 713 at the Sun Spot, registered to an Albert Kyeman, Room 523 at the Sunspot, registered to an Julie Boiing, Room 807 at the Golden Riot, registered to an Alice Kingsley, Room 418 at the Golden Riot, registered to a Mark Callaway, and Room 616 at the Beach Bouncers, registered to a James Howlett."

"Room 418 at the Golden Riot," Tony said without pause, "That's her room."

"You're sure?" Thor questioned.

"99.99% sure," Tony told him.

Rhodey jumped up where he was sitting across the table, Fury right beside him, "Okay, let's go get her!"

Tony grabbed his laptop from Pepper, "Fury's right, we still don't know who the cell phone belongs to…"

"How did those words taste coming out of your mouth?" Fury asked him smugly.

"As I expected they would; like any other oxymoron."

The man with the eye patch glared menacingly at the billionaire's condescending smirk but continued to listen anyway, "I've hacked the hotel's fourth floor security. I want to monitor it for a day and then we'll decide if we should go and get her; four days is more than enough to go through everything and come to terms with her mother being a lying, manipulating…"

"Tony!" Pepper scolded.

"Fine," Jane said, "but if she gets a day at the beach; I'm taking a day at your pool."

"Girls' Day!" Pepper squealed dragging Jane out of the room happily, relief flowing through her now that she knew they had a handle on Tori and she was safe.

Thor and Tony shared a look before nodding and saying together, "Workshop."

Rhodey and Thor ended up playing video games on the couch while Tony sat at his computer working on something that Fury wouldn't even begin to understand. He was just sitting back watching until it was time to relieve his agents from babysitting duty.

"Are you going to tell Consetta that we know where Tori is?"

"It would be morally wrong not to… so no, I'm not tell that big ball of crazy anything."

Tony chuckled, "That's one way to describe her."

"You said that your kid…"

"Tori."

"…that she was still seventeen; when's her birthday?"

"It'll be two weeks from today, May twelth."

Fury seemed to ponder that for a moment, "What are you planning? I know it's something heinous but I'd still like the chance to be prepared."

"Well," Tony drawled, "I have a decade worth of parties to make up for, plus her graduation party, so I'm thinking of having Pepper deck out my parent's recently remodeled mansion and throwing her a huge party there. I thought about renting out Avalon in Hollywood but they don't have a swimming pool. The agency sent me a list of calls from people at her school, so I have a list of her friends and I also hacked her MIT account, so I have a list of people she's friends with there. According to the file Natalie put together on Consetta's information, she is also a member of a dance school in Italy, so some of her friends are there. That's about two hundred people…"

"The horror…" Fury said, already dreading the date and planning an impromptu vacation for his family.

"The capacity at my parents place is about three hundred…"

"I find it fascinating that you know that number by heart."

"So I can invite a hundred close associate's kids; you have a daughter about Tori's age don't you?"

"Absolutely not!"

"Okay, so your daughter goes to the top of the list…"

"Stark!"

"…I guess I'll have to invite the team. Maybe I'll blacklist Steve and Hawk; I'm just asking for trouble if I invite them…"

Suddenly Rhodey shouted from the sofa, "Tony's there's movement!"

Several angles were pulled up on the screen beside Rhodey and Thor, to play the live feed from Tori's hallway. He ran over to the screen and saw that Rhodey was right; his little girl was leaving her hotel room and heading out of her door with what looked like her bag packed for checkout.

"Shit, she's leaving," Tony said as he sat down to hack the cameras so he could follow her out of the hotel. He listened to the conversation she was having on her cell phone as she walked down the hall.

"_No," her voice sounded like bells, "I'm about to leave now… Will you stop worrying; I'm not going to wreck your baby."_

Okay, she had borrowed a friend's car… at least he assumed it was a car. It was probably the same person they'd been tracking earlier.

"_What kind of question is that? Of course I've got the phone, I'm talk to you right now!" she yelled as she entered the elevator which he'd already hacked, "And people think you're so smart… I love you too but you're still an idiot… Hey if you have a problem with my IQ take it up with my father; I dare you!"_

Tony smirked, whoever she was talking to definitely knew what had been going on the last few days and it made him sort of happy that whoever she was talking too backed down at the mention of him.

"_No, I'm on my way there now… I don't know, it's 3:30 so hopefully I can get there by five… I'm not going to drive that thing like a grandma just because you're a pussy cat… I'm not a bad driver just because I like to drive fast; the two are not synonyms… I'm not that smart just because I know what a synonym is; you're just an indictment of the American education system!.. Do you want me to drive your car off a cliff?.. Then shut the hell up… Yes, I'll call you and tell you how it goes… I don't know if you'll be able to come over…. Okay! I'll ask… maybe… Fine, I'll ask… Love you too, bye!"_

By the time she hung up the phone she had checked out and was walking toward the parking lot. Tony looked but there were no security cameras in the parking lot, or street cameras in the surrounding shops, "Fuck, we're going to lose her."

"What about the phone she was talking on?"

"Must be a track phone because I can't get a signal on it; that or she's done something to it."

"Alright," Fury said, hesitant as he was to continue, "Can you monitor the person she's been talking to? She said she would call them back and see if they could go to see her… maybe we could track her that way."

Tony shrunk in his seat, "We should have gone earlier but I guess that's the only way now."

...

Take just a second to review, please!


	3. Chapter 3

Hey everyone! Thanks to Myth Freak for her review, since i couldn't reply to you personally I decided to send you a little message here. I think you'll like this chapter! Please guys, review!

...

By 4:45 P.M. Fury had gone to Consetta's hotel, while Rhodey and Thor had gone up to the pool to bug the girls. Tony was still in the workshop, monitoring the phone calls on his daughter's mystery friend but there was nothing from Tori's number. He thought he recognized the number from somewhere but he couldn't remember. When he wasn't checking out phone calls he was working on his newest project, ordering parts and making sure that his machine was correctly signing the papers Pepper had sent him to ink that morning.

His fiancé had ordered dinner and made him promise to come up to eat with them although she knew he would prefer to sit around his various screens and try to track his little girl. Finally the doorbell rang and he moved to go pay the delivery man.

"Sir…"

"I got it, Jarvis."

"Yes, sir."

He pulled the door back and froze, unable to even comprehend what he was seeing, "Tori?"

She seemed hesitant to be there but gave him a shy smile regardless, "Hi Daddy."

Suddenly she was being crushed to her father's chest and lifted up so he could spin her around the foyer. He even slammed the door and locked it before daring to think about letting her go. He'd never been so relieved to see someone in his life, not even after the expo and kissing Pepper on that rooftop.

"Dad… I can't breathe here!" Tori gasped.

Slowly he put her down and took her face in his hands, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine… Well I'm not _fine… _physically I'm fine!" she came to an abrupt stop, "Why do you look so relieved?"

"Your mom came here claiming I'd kidnapped you… then that you'd been kidnapped… we called in the Avengers and everything but then we were able to track your friend's cell phone to Catalina Island. So we were sure that you were okay before we called off the man hunt," He summarized.

"Damn, I'm sorry. I wasn't expecting her to come after you!"

He pulled her back into his arms, "Shh, it's okay. I knew that you didn't mean to flip the bitch's crazy switch."

"Tony, did lunch get here?" Pepper asked as she entered the foyer.

Quickly he turned Tori away from him and picked her up by her arms, "Look what showed up at the front door!"

"Daddy, put me down!" she squealed, kicking her feet which were a good foot off the ground even in her heels.

"Tori," Pepper extended her hand, "I'm Pepper Potts."

"Yeah right!" Tori said before pulling Pepper in for a hug.

Pepper squeaked slightly out of surprise before hugging the girl back and looking at her fiancé over the girl's shoulder, "Look, she's hugging me."

Tony chuckled, "Had I known that is all it'd take to make you happy, I'd have hired someone to hug you more often."

Both girls turned on him and punched him in the shoulders, before letting him pull them into a group hug. Pepper could feel him physically relax having both of them in his arms and it made her even more ecstatic, knowing that Tony's daughter had already accepted her.

"Well, well, well… looks like L.T. has arrived!" Jane said as she came in to check on the hold up.

Tori looked over at her before looking back to her father, "L.T.?"

"From the context of the last few hours I've gathered it to mean Little Tony, Miss Stark."

Tori jumped and grabbed Tony's arm, "Where the fuck did that come from?"

"I'm Jarvis, I am an artificial intelligence that Mr. Stark designed help run all of his house hold needs as well as research and updates into his Iron Man suit. Anything I can assist you with please ask."

"Really?" She said looking at Tony, "You built an A.I.?"

"You said you wanted one!" Tony defended.

"I was five! And I couldn't reach the shower nobs to turn it on!"

"Oh that is so cute," Jane said as she came to a stop. Rhodey, who was right behind her, froze.

"Uncle Rhodey!"

"Baby Girl!"

Tori jumped into his arms easily and let him swing her around. The two rambled on talking over each other and ceasing to pause for breath, which would have inhibited their happy reunion. Tony watched them happily and paid for the food when it arrived.

"Hey, let's take this party out to the pool and I'll call Fury to let him know what's going on," Tony suggested.

While Tony made the call, Tori moved to change into a bathing suit, and Pepper started putting the food into safer containers for pool parties. By the time Tori came out in a bathroom Fury was briefed on the situation and the conversation was heading in a direction Tony was not fond of.

"Look, I really don't want Consetta to know that she's here…_ever, _but since I know that's not really an option just give me a little bit of time… I don't know a few days…"

"A few weeks sounds better," Tori muttered as she started helping Pepper.

Tony grinned a little at the comment, "Yeah, that was her. Look, I don't know the exact day for you to tell her…"

"Give me that," Pepper said, wrestling the phone from his hand, "Nick, you can tell her first thing Monday morning if she doesn't find out herself… What I meant was that Tony, and now Tori, are going to a gala for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and her presence is bound to cause a stir."

"When did I sign up for that?" Tori asked him.

"Princess, I'm not even sure when _I _signed up for it," Tony explained before turning back to his wife, "Why do we have to go; galas are nothing but stuck up asses and I want to stay here with the little princess."

Pepper could only roll her eyes as said little princess nodded and snuggled up to her daddy, talk about wrapped around someone's finger, "Nick hold on just a second… Look you two, this was the only gala open before the end of Summer; Tony you know your contract says you have to attend so many of these things and you need two more. The other one is going to be the Children's Hospital as it is every year so please don't fight me on this."

They both groaned but nodded anyway and she couldn't help but grin at them, "Hey, try to think of it this way; it'll drive Consetta up a wall."

The two seemed to like that as they both grinned and high fived. Tony pulled his daughter back to his chest and Pepper knew he couldn't help it. Tony Stark was a kinetic person by nature; if he couldn't feel it himself, it might as well not be there. Even if he could see it, if he wasn't touching something he felt like it was only a matter of time before it disappeared and from the way Tori was cuddling him, it seemed that the trait had been inherited.

"Okay, Nick, I'm back… No, the gala is tomorrow night… Yeah, I know, it'll be all over the news by Monday morning… Okay, see you there."

"Hold on!" Tori said suddenly, "I don't have anything to wear!"

Pepper snorted, "Don't get to excited; me, you, and Jane are going shopping in the morning. Tony, know that the team is going to be there and prepare yourself accordingly."

"Damn it all!" Tony said as he and his girls carried the food out to the pool.

"What's wrong with the Avengers team being there?" Tori asked them.

"Well a few members of the team," Thor started explaining, "were rather attracted to you when they saw your picture and your father doesn't like that very much."

Tori laughed, "Don't worry, Dad. They'll just get shot down anyway."

"I don't know," Jane told her, "Captain America is kind of cute."

"I've got a boyfriend who's a lot more then kind of cute," Tori told her.

Everyone looked at Tony in terror but found him to be lounging in a beach chair quite comfortable. When he realized that everyone was staring at him he raised an eyebrow, "She my kid; she's gonna date! Jesus, as long as they treat her right and aren't on my team, I really don't care… Honestly, you people act as if I'm unreasonable."

Rhodey grabbed Pepper's shoulder quickly, "Don't bother, he really can't help himself."

The woman just shook her head as she moved to sit down beside of him, passing a dirty look in his direction before settling under the umbrella. Tony just smiled and relaxed. He was lounging by the pool with the two women most important to him and his two best friends; Jane was pretty cool to but she was more of Pepper's bestie. Yes, he was sure of it, life was good.

Later that night the group was sitting in front of Tony's big screen after a very long Tim Burton Marathon and everyone was either asleep or almost there. Tori was curled up next to a sleeping Rhodey, Thor and Jane were both down for the count, and Tony and Pepper were about to throw in the towel themselves.

"Alright, I think it's time to call it a night," Pepper said as she moved to shut off the television and left the snacks to the robot cleanup crew. "Come one you two, wake up! Thor, Jane, come on, I want to go to sleep!"

"You too old for me to tuck you in?" Tony asked as he swept the hair from Tori's face. Her only response was to pull him toward her childhood room.

She got more nervous the closer they became to the room. It had been ten years and she wasn't quite sure what to expect; she wasn't sure which extreme would be better. If it was totally changed it would hurt but she'd understand while if it was exactly the same her Dad hadn't been able to change it because he was hurting.

When the door opened she found it to be the later. Her Disney princess room still rivaled the wonderful and magical place itself, with its huge queen sized bed that used to swallow her whole. Her bag had already been brought in by one of the robot assistants, which she maintained that she would never get used to, but she'd changed into sleep wear earlier so it didn't really matter. As she walked in, her father trailing along behind her, she spotted something on the dresser. When she picked it up, she realized it was two very old Disney World tickets.

Tony didn't realize what his daughter had until she showed them to him and for a moment he froze, unsure of what to say. Once he swallowed the sudden lump in his throat, it became easier to answer her silent question, "I wasn't exactly in the mood to playcate the board that day so after an hour they called it quits; make two guys cry and they tend to realize that your not in the mood for games…"

"You made two men _cry_?"

Tony laughed, "They had it coming… Anyway, I got home early that day and was going to surprise you, and then of course it all went to hell."

Tori sighed and sat down on her bed, Tony sitting beside of her and relaxing as she laid her head on his shoulder. "I didn't want to go, I even fought Mom all the way to the airport. When we got there I tried to run off and fell."

Tony looked at the faint scar she pointed out, it went from the bottom of her calf to the top of her knee but wouldn't have been noticeable if he wasn't looking, "It took fifteen stitches to sow me up."

"That's not going to happen again, princess. You're seventeen now and if you don't want to leave me, you're not going to," Tony told her. He thought about telling her that he'd seen the security footage but didn't want to upset her further, "…And at seventeen I think we're going to have to give your room a makeover."

"Yeah, the Barbie jeep in the corner just doesn't have the same appeal anymore."

Tony laughed as an epiphany assaulted him and he quickly tucked in his little girl, knowing that this would probably be the last time he'd ever get to do so. He went down to the workshop as soon as Tori was asleep and set to work getting half of her birthday present ready. He was under the hood of his fire engine red 69 mustang, which hadn't been driven since the day of the video he'd shown Pepper, while Happy worked on making a very big red bow. It had always been his plan to give Tori the car when she got her license but now he was glad that he hadn't shipped it over to Italy two years ago when she'd turned sixteen.

Dummy was waxing the red beauty some time later, while he changed the oil when Pepper came to track him down. She was in a night gown and fluffy robe, shaking her head as she punched in the code to enter, but the grin on her face betrayed her real feelings, "What are you doing?"

"Getting Tori's present ready," he grunted.

"You don't think she's going to notice her favorite car sitting here with Happy's big red bow on it?"

"She's not gonna see it!"

"Tony, sweetie, I've seen the videos of you bouncing physics ideas off of her while she sat on that work bench when she was four. Forget the fact that she actually knew what you were talking about; you don't think she's going to wonder down here in the next two weeks?"

Tony pondered that for a moment before jumping up and grabbing black trash bags from under his work bench, "You're right, help me put these up!"

Pepper could only laugh in exasperation as she began helping him. Once the glass walls of the workshop were completely covered she looked back at him, "So you're giving her the car for her birthday?"

"And something else!"

"…What?" Pepper asked cautiously.

"I'll give you a hint; something blue and something bronze."

"Oh God!... I guess it's not that bad, you, Rhodey, and I all have one."

"Exactly, so you can't tell Fury until after I give it to her."

"Fine, now that it's all hidden, let's go to bed," Pepper said as she turned to leave. When she got to the door she turned back to him, "Tony, you might want to change your entrance code to something other than her birthday, I have a feeling she might guess that."

The man grinned at her, "Yeah, I was actually just thinking that maybe I should get her to promise there will be no more hacking my systems; that will probably be the safest way to keep it all a secret."

….

Review Please!


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning Tori drug herself from bed, much more relaxed and happy then she'd been in a very long time. Even with her excitement at being home however, she was still not a morning person and as she started to get dressed, a surprise was the last thing she needed.

"Good morning, Miss Stark, can I get you anything?"

A string of curses flew from Tori before she could stop herself as she hurried to finish dressing and clutched at her rapidly beating heart, "Jesus! You're going to take some getting used to!"

After a moment of hesitancy the A.I. spoke again, "I'm sorry for the startle madam, is there anything you need this morning?"

"Umm… Do you know if anyone is up yet and where they are?"

"Everyone is up except for Mr. Thor. Ms. Soon to be Stark and Mr. Rhodes are in the kitchen, Ms. Jane is getting ready for your outing, and your father is in the workshop but he asked to be made aware when you woke up so he will be meeting you in the kitchen. I believe he wishes to speak to you."

"About what?"

"I was told it was concerning the hacking of Stark Industries."

"Hacking? What hacking?" She asked as she moved toward the kitchen.

"Your father is sure that you hacked Stark Industries and wishes to talk to you about it," The A.I. said in a tone that she was sure meant he did not believe her innocent act but she chose to ignore it.

"Okay, thanks Jarvis!" She said as she bopped down the stairs and into the kitchen. Her uncle was sitting there with a cup of coffee while Pepper and her father talked… Well Pepper talked to him, mainly showing where she needed his signature. Her dad looked up to verify that it was her before waiting for her to get settled with cereal.

"I wanted to talk to you about…"

"I didn't do it!"

"You don't even know what it's about yet!"

"I know that I didn't do it."

"I think that you did and you're not in trouble."

After letting off a hysterical hackle she looked back at him, "Do I have dumbass tattooed on my forehead?"

"You're not. Look, did you hack Stark Industries yesterday."

"Of course not!" She said with so much sarcasm that Pepper even had to chuckle.

Tony just grinned and rolled his eyes, "Well with that said… I want you to promise me that you won't hack the company or my workshop anymore."

She paused, "I'm not saying that I hacked the company, but I know I didn't hack your workshop."

"Not yet but I don't want you going in there and seeing your birthday present."

He wasn't expecting her to jump up and try to run toward the stairs but he did manage to tackle her before she could get there. They struggled for a moment, apparently that dance school had paid off because Tori was a whole lot stronger than she looked, much to the enjoyment of her future stepmother and godfather. Finally Tony got her pinned securely enough to go on the offensive and gave her a warning.

"Promise or I'll tickle you into surrender!"

"Never!" Tori hissed, kicking her father in the shin and forcing him to engage in another round of struggles. It continued for a few minutes, while Thor, who had woken up, joined them with a dressed Jane, and they all watched with giddy mirth. Finally the seventeen year old found herself pinned again.

"Surrender," Tony said even as he positioned to start the tickle attack.

"Only if I get a hint!"

"Sorry dear, I, like your grandfather, will only accept Unconditional Surrender," so the attack began and she tried her best to fight but it was to no avail. He father had the upper hand and was tickling her to the point of hyperventilation.

"Fine, fine, I won't… hack… the stupid… workshop!" She said between giggles.

"Or?..."

"Or the… stupid… company… now please… stop it!" She squealed.

"I always wondered how Starks handled family disputes," Rhodey said as they returned to the table.

"Jarvis," Pepper said, "Get me a copy of that tape before one of them deletes it."

"It's already in your office, Ms. Soon to be Stark."

Pepper sighed, "If you don't remove that program I am going to kill you, Anthony."

"See," Tori said, "Had you helped me a few minutes ago, I'd already have it removed for you."

"Just wait," Pepper warned her, "You're going to end up in a long pink frilly dress with little ballet slippers!"

The look of horror that came over Tori's face was enough to have Tony in stitches as he stumbled all the way down to his lab. It was strange to look and see the long wall of black that he faced as he went down the stairs but he knew that with his daughter, it was necessary to cover all angles. He was relieved to see Pepper and Tori getting along so well, he'd always heard horror stories about stepparents and children becoming jealous and fighting one another. While Pepper might view Tori as she would her own daughter, it wasn't standard that his daughter would feel the same way. Of course with Consetta as a mother, she probably didn't feel like Pepper was encroaching on anyone's territory.

Later on at the boutique it was just Pepper and Tori. Jane had gotten a call from her university and had to take her dress and go before the two Stark girls could pick their own. The two got on very well, they shared a lot of the same interests, and both women were even shoe whores, as Tony liked to call it. They laughed and had a good time but Pepper purposefully kept the subjects neutral, not wanting to seem evasive or nosy.

The CEO had finally found a mint green dress with a v neck and criss-cross back. She decided on strappy gold sandals that would look wonderful with the long dress, which was silted clean up to her hip. Tori looked wonderful in all of the dresses that she put on but none of them seemed to be the one. Pepper was more than happy to sit around the shop and give her opinion of the dresses, the idea of going home and trying to drag Tony up from the workshop was not something that she looked forward to.

"Would Dad let me change my name back to Stark?" came the timid question from the dressing in front of Pepper.  
"Of course he would," she said out of shock, "I'm sure he doesn't want you to feel like you have to but I have a feeling he'd prefer it that way."

"It's going to be a lot to do. I have to change the name on both my licenses and my social security card. Damn, I've heard Oxford is a real bitch about changing names on licenses for their M.D.s, the bastards…"

"You're a doctor?" Pepper interrupted her.

Tori laughed, "Yeah, my mother wouldn't let me go to M.I.T. when I was twelve so I went to Medical School instead; I just graduated a few days ago. I think I like being a doctor better than being an engineer but if I got a degree from M.I.T. I think that I could do a lot of work with medical equipment improvement."

Pepper tried to word her next words very carefully, "Are you going to be a solo contract or…"

"I'll be a med engineer for Stark Industries. I've got several… medicines that I'm working on right now that I'd like to run through the company if I can get them right."

"I'm going to ask this but don't answer if you don't want to," Pepper said.

"Okay," Tori said as she slid into her shoes.

"Is that how you paid to go to Catalina Island or did your boyfriend…" She let the statement hang. It wasn't her intention to sound accusatory but it was impossible to think of another way to ask.

Tori couldn't help but chuckle, "Don't worry, he's not my sugar daddy. Mom took most of my money but I did have some from when patients paid in cash and that was enough to get to Catalina. My boyfriend had nothing to do with my little vacation."

Suddenly the door to the dressing room opened and Tori stepped out. The dress she was wearing was short but kept her covered. It was blue, with diamond rhinestones lining the sweetheart neckline. It fit her just right and, although Pepper knew that Tony would have a fit, Pepper just could not see the girl leaving with any other dress. Her shoes were silver high wedged heels and her hair, even in a plain pony tail, made her look like she was already set to go down the red carpet.

"I think we've found it," Tori said with a Cheshire like grin.

"I think you're right," Pepper told her.

Once the dresses were paid for the girls went out to lunch but it wasn't until they were almost finished that Pepper found the courage to ask the question that had been bothering her for the last day, "So, who is your boyfriend?"

"You'll meet him tonight; I think everyone will like him… hopefully. Mom isn't fond of him but she's not fond of anyone."

"You're not going to give me a name, are you?"

"No, I think that I'll let it be a surprise."

"Well then, I suppose it would be a good idea to move this party back to the house. You're going to have to start getting ready soon anyway," Pepper told her as she moved toward the door. She wasn't quite sure how but Tony had persuaded her to drive his Audi to the boutique. "Do you want to drive?"

Without a moment's hesitation the seventeen year old snatched the keys and went running for the car. It felt just like driving with her fiancé, Pepper decided. Yes, the speed limits were definitely violated, so much so that cops didn't even bother to chase the silver Audi when they saw it anymore. Still the young woman seemed to be in perfect control of the car and never once really made her father's future wife nervous.

As the girl enjoyed the drive Pepper had time to think about how similar the two Starks really were. Tori obviously had her father's brain, on a side note the CEO needed to find out if Tony had ever gotten into that Oxford file and found that his daughter was actually a doctor, but that was far from their only similarity. Tori was kinetic, just like her father, and everyone seemed to be fond of her… perhaps she was a little more people oriented because of her profession where Tony's idiosyncrasies tended to get in the way. She had Tony's wild spirit; being around her father was starting to bring it out again, while being stuck with Consetta for a decade had forced her to repress it.

By the time they pulled up to the house Tori was grinning like a mad woman and Pepper couldn't help but smile back. The blonde minx jumped out of the car and practically skipped up to the house, both of their dresses in her hand while the red head followed happily. It had been a fun outing and she could only hope that she had started out on a good path to becoming an important part of the girl's life, just like the little Stark had unintentionally integrated herself in her future stepmother's life.

Walking down to the workshop Pepper wasn't surprised to find just Rhodey and Tony there, Thor having to leave to prepare for the gala that night. The two men were huddled over what looked suspiciously like a cell phone and a feeling of terror began to move through her as she searched her purse. Luck seemed to be on her side today as her blackberry was safe in its own little pocket, protected from any more of the crazy men's experiments.

"What are you two doing?"

"Working," Rhodey said.

"Well you need to be getting ready for the gala," Pepper clipped at them.

"Later," Tony one worded her.

"Tony… whose phone is that?"

Just then the walls began to shake as someone banged on door with a type of ferocity that could only mean one thing, "You better not have my phone or I'll hack you so bad Jarvis will be irreparable!"

Pepper choked on her laughter as Tony and Rhodey both looked up from the workbench, wide eyed and completely terrified; obviously they hadn't thought past whatever upgrade they were giving the teenager's phone to how she would react when she discovered they'd taken in.

"Now Miss Stark, surely you can punish them without dragging me into this," Jarvis said, obviously whatever self-preservation software Tony had upgraded him with was beginning to kick in, in the face of an enraged Stark.

Tony quickly grabbed the phone, finished with whatever he was doing to it and practically ran to slip out the door, Rhodey right behind him. Pepper followed them out at a slower pace, by the time she slid out the door and closed it, Tori was snatching the phone from her father.

"It's not what you think!" Tony tried to explain, "I just gave it an upgrade of sorts."

The girl thumbed through the phone for a minute, "A GPS tracker is not an upgrade, Dad."

"You trigger it not me," Tony maintained, "It's just in case you're ever in trouble. I swear we didn't look at anything personal; we were just concerned about your safety."

"Yeah, being his daughter doesn't exactly bring the safest of scenarios," Rhodey said as he pointed to Pepper, "Hell, she got kidnapped twice!"

"Really, twice?" Tori asked her.

Pepper shrugged, "Comes with the territory if you're not careful. If it makes you feel any better we all have the trackers on our phones."

The girl poked her father in the chest, obviously trying to maintain being mad but failing, "Next time you take my phone, you better ask." Then she moved back up the stairs quickly, stomping off with what little bit of fight she had left.

"I thought we were goners there for a second!" Rhodey said.

Tony laughed, "I saw my life flash… Okay, back to work."

Pepper grabbed both men's arms as they tried to pass her, "NO, time to get ready for a gala."

They both groaned.

…..

Please Review!

If I can get ten reviews I'm going to go ahead and upload the next chapter, which is of course the gala.

I own nothing!


	5. Chapter 5

Here is Chapter 5, I of course own nothing!

Please continue to review, it means a lot to me as a writer! I hope to get as many reviews for this chapter as I did for the last, uploading two in one day, but we'll see.

...

Tony was fighting with his cufflink while Pepper finished her hair. The two hadn't seen Tori since she left them outside the shop but according to Jarvis she was indeed getting ready. The billionaire engineer knew that something heinous was going on from the way Pepper smiled and talked about how amazing Tori looked in her new dress. He knew that the two women had a great time and he was sort of thankful that Jane had to jump ship; the two needed a chance to get to know one another.

His fiancé had mentioned Tori's medical degree, which he already found out about and added to the list of things to celebrate at her party, and that his princess seemed eager to change her name back to Stark. It was a concern that everything was changing too fast for her and that she might need things to slow down but from what he could see she was perfectly happy with the way it was all coming together. He'd asked his new assistant to keep an eye on her; Pepper was already taking money for a pool on how long this new girl was going to last and no one seemed to think that it would be over a month.

"Really," Tori demanded as she came in the open door, "A decade later and the genius Tony Stark still can't fix his own cufflinks!"

Tony said nothing as he stared at his little girl. Her dress was flawless; the deep blue looked amazing on her golden brown skin. The rhinestones around the neckline glittered in the light, as did her sparkling silver shoes. Her hair, which was naturally wavy, had been straightened to show off her sharp razor cut layers and bangs, which just screamed 'little rocker'. She also had silver bangles on both of her wrists, a silver anklet with what looked like a charm saying 'I Wanna Rock', and a silver ring in the shape of a star.

"No, absolutely not," Tony said as she fastened the offending cufflinks and he turned toward the bathroom, "What happened to the long pink dress and ballet slippers?"

Pepper and Tori both laughed as the red head emerged from the bathroom, "As you put it earlier, 'I saw my life flash'."

Tony rolled his eyes, "Go change, I don't feel like going to prison today."

"Daddy," Tori said exasperated, the grin and tilt of her head high lighting her bright and sparkling eyes.

The engineer sighed, "I'm going to end up a super villain."

The young doctor grinned wider and hopped over to Pepper, who smoothed out her dress and started putting her own jewelry on. While the two were busy vetoing certain pieces Tony slipped on his bracelet to control the suit and wandered over to the closet. There he began looking for an old box that he hadn't pulled out for quite some time. When he found it there were indeed several layers of dust on the top but he could still read the name 'Maria Stark' engraved in gold on the cover.

"I think you're missing something, Baby Girl," Tony said as he put the box back on the shelf.

Tori looked down as the outfit, as did Pepper, both trying to figure out what could possibly be missing. She looked up at her father as he approached, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. He quickly lifted his hand a let a small silver chain dangle in front of her. On the end saw a solid diamond, petite and dainty but identifiable as being in the shape of a heart.

"It was your grandmother's," Tony said as he moved to put it on her, "So no wild escapades where it ends up lost or unfound."

"I love it," She said happily, hugging him. Tony returned the embrace with one arm while moving to answer his phone with the other.

"Yeah… It's the girl's fault… Well call Pepper and yell at her! ... No I wouldn't do that either… Okay, we'll be down in a minute…" Tony said hanging up, "Hogan would like us to get down to the car immediately. Apparently we're late and he's 'losing patience with you people' so we better hurry."

Less than three minutes later, the three were sliding into a limo, Tori first. Tony pointed to the girls, "It was them."

"Oh sure, blame it on the little women!" his driver and friend accused.

"It was this time… Pepper tell him you were picking out jewelry!"

"He was in the workshop like always," Pepper lied easily, earning an outraged look and consequential pout from her fiancé.

The closer they got to the gala the more nervous they all became. Pepper was worried about the two people on either side of her. As she glanced at both of them, neither looked to care even the smallest bit that they were about to face horrifying wolves in the form of paparazzi but knowing Tony as long as she had, it was clear that his looks meant nothing. She was sure that both of them were about to burst on the inside and there was nothing she could do to make it any better.

Tony was worried about Tori and if she'd be able to handle the press that he'd hidden her from for the past seventeen, almost eighteen, years. Consetta had always loved the spotlight and in a way so did he, but that didn't mean Tori would necessarily love it too. He glanced over Pepper's head at her a few times during the ride. His fiancé was busy keeping his company afloat on her blackberry, probably preparing people for the shit storm that Tori's presence was going to cause.

His daughter was closely examining his mother's necklace, the concentration of her stare was too deep to be worried about the necklace but he was scared to ask what was wrong. Starks were notorious for burying their emotions and dealing with their concerns head on; why would he violate the system that was instinctual for both of them?

Tori was in the same boat as Tony. She just wanted to get this over with and face the media with her charm and pleasant attitude. She was never forced to face the media when she was little; hell her first uppity party would have been the one at Oliver Queen's place the day her mother took her away. Dealing with this was the hardest part, she figured, the after math would be spent listening to dumbasses on the television gossip and having to answer to her crazy ass mother. As they pulled up to the red carpet Tori did the only thing that she could; took a deep breath and asked for her grandmother's help.

Tony stepped out first, and then turned to help Pepper. The press was going nuts just like always as their favorite power couple showed up in all of their glory.

Peter Parker, a lead photographer for the Daily Bulge, who was always sent to these events to get pictures of his billionaire boss, was also Tony's favorite person to pick on. He was standing at the front of the flashing cameras. Once Pepper was situated on one arm, Tony winked at Parker, who blushed and looked down at his shoes, before turning back to the car and offering Tori his other hand.

The young girl stepped out and Tony had never seen so many cameras flashing in his life.

He heard question after question start firing from the surrounding reporters and as they moved slightly closer to them, up the red carpet, Tony looked at Parker, answering his inquiries instead of the others, "Oh come on Parker; I'm the bane of your existence! I'd think you'd recognize another Stark when you saw one!"

Parker looked like a fish for a moment, though Tony missed the recognition that was also clearly written on his face, obviously not sure what Tony was implying by his statement, "Ahh, Dad, you broke him!"

That was all it took for every reporter in the vicinity to lose their sanity and start simultaneously yelling at their photographers about getting the right shot. Tony just laughed and kissed Tori's forehead before turning and placing a quick peck on Pepper's lips. They then started to move up the red carpet into the event, which was already beginning to warm up. It didn't take long to spot the Avengers team, who had been watching the entrance from a small window.

"Wow," Steve said as he approached the trio, his eyes trained on Tori, "Hello, I'm Steve Rogers."

"Tori Stark," she introduced herself, letting go of Tony's arm, and accepting the extended hand of Captain America.

"You're prettier than your picture showed," Clint said as he extended his hand to the young girl, which she accepted somewhat hesitantly.

"Dr. Bruce Banner," The Hulk greeted, trying very hard to not seem like a creeper, which is exactly what his team mates sounded like.

"Dr. Banner," Tori said, "I've heard a lot about you."

The man stopped, ignoring the scuffle around him as Tony and Thor shuffled the other two team mates away and Pepper began to talk with Natasha. He stared at the young girl in front of him, her voice sounded just like…

"Banner, do I have to worry about you too now?"

That shook him from his state of shock, "NO… I mean, no. She just sounded like someone I worked with a few years ago… Anyway, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"The same here," Tori said, quickly pulling away and stepping closer to her father.

Once the team had disbursed back into the party and Rhodey came up to them, Tony was ready for a drink.

"It's a dry party," Pepper announced.

"You better be kidding," Tony said but she didn't have time to reply.

Outside was a burst of yelling and flashing which prompted the four of them to look out the window. There were decorative flashes of green in the air and suddenly the Green Lantern Corps were dropping from the sky in shots of astro-lightning. The leader, Hal Jordan, and the rest of his team, alien and the like, were dressed up to par with any of the millionaires in the room already.

"I didn't know the Lantern Corps were on our planet," Tony said to Rhodey.

"I didn't either. Jordan was supposed to be doing work for the Air Force and I was under the impression his team was enjoying some time off in our galaxy… elsewhere, in our galaxy."

"I wonder what they're doing here," Pepper pondered.

"Don't know but I really can't deal with both you and Jordan in the same room. He might be the best pilot I've got but he's a pain in my ass nine times out of ten… He makes Maverick look like a rational person," Rhodey explained as the L.C.s started to trail into the room happily.

Tori grinned, "Then you're really not going to like what happens next."

Both men looked at her with raised eyebrows while Pepper just rubbed her forehead, already feeling a headache coming on. The girl approached Hal, who had his back to her and was looking for someone. When she took hold of his bicep he turned and grinned a Cheshire cat smile before leaning down and pulling her in for a searing kiss.

"If you'll all excuse me," Tony said reaching for bracelet, "I left something at the house."

Pepper grabbed his arm, "You're not bringing in the suit."

"Even if I promise not to kill him?"

"…Even then," Pepper maintained somewhat hesitantly, "Rhodey, where do you think you're going?"

"You know someone snuck alcohol in here, and I really need it right now."

"At least talk to them first, look, here they come."

Tori pulled Hal along behind her, afraid he would bolt if she let go of his hand. The boy could face any monster in this galaxy or the next, but you ask him to meet her father and he'd turn into a big chicken. He'd been semi-fine with commitment, much to her surprise since she'd always pegged him as a commitmentphobe, despite their distance and often lack of physicality. He'd also been a sport about meeting her mother, which he knew wasn't a deal breaker if the crazy didn't like him. Meeting her father however, was definitely something that could end them in a heartbeat and that was something that he wasn't prepared for after less than a week of knowing who her father was.

"Dad, this is Hal Jordan. Hal, this is my father, Tony Stark."

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Stark."

Tony chuckled, "You say Mr. Stark and I look around for my father; call me Tony."

Hal nodded, "Nice to meet you, Tony."

"Same here; how long have you been dating my daughter?"

"Three years this June."

"Aww, you remembered!"

"You hacked the U.S. Air Force and sent them a virus the last time I was in the air and forgot."

Rhodey gasped, "That was you!"

Tori sighed and gave Hal, who looked like he just realized Rhodey was there, a well-deserved slap to the chest, "No, he's just being a smart ass! Hal, you know my Uncle, Colonel James Rhodes."

Hal chuckled, "We've met…"

Tony popped Rhodey on the arm, "Common man, it's really time to go see who snuck in the liquor."

"I got you covered," Tori said, producing two flasks, though Tony couldn't tell you from where.

"That's my girl," Tony told Tori proudly before taking a long drink. "Alright, we came… we made a great entrance… we had a drink… when can we leave?"

Pepper shot him a dirty look but the billionaire just grinned and she could only roll her eyes.

Tori looked at her boyfriend and smirked, "I don't think there's been enough of a scene just yet, but we're gonna need some reinforcements."

"What do you mean?" Hal asked.

Tori just pointed behind him. When the lantern turned around he was his girlfriend's best friends Cassandra Cain and Jason Todd heading straight for them. The two girls jumped and hugged and squealed to the point that it drew some attention as the boys shared a quick nod.

Tony watched the transaction, noting that Bruce Wayne had just come up behind him.

"That- Troube" Bruce said circling Tori and Cassandra with his finger, "That- a Disaster" he said widening the circle to include Jason and Hal.

"Are you serious Bruce?" Pepper asked.

"Deadly," Bruce confirmed and before Tony could stop her, Pepper was pulling her blackberry from his pocket and dialing in for damage control prep.

"They'll be fine," Tony said, "It can't be any worse then what I've gotten myself into."

Bruce shrugged, "I don't know, that girl of yours could give you a run for your money."

Tony just chuckled as the batty sidekicks moved to talk to the DJ at the event, who looked about ready to kill over from boredom. From the stack of bills that Todd slid him and the grin on his face, the billionaire playboy was sort of happy that Pepper was prepping the damage control.

It started out simple enough, just Pink and Carrie Underwood singing about getting even. Then Joan Jett got a little more troublesome as more and more of the teenagers who'd been forced to attend by their parents joined in the quartet of rebel rousers. It was just a dull party turned fun until someone, it might have been Connor Queen but no one could prove anything, let in a few media reporters. By the time it was over a disco ball, a lot of alcohol, and a shaking building had become involved as well. Tony was happy to see that several of the parents joined in, he, Oliver, and Bruce leading that charge, and the foundation was already claiming to have collected record breaking donations by the time they left.

When they departed there were nineteen people in the Hummer Limo that Tony was glad he sprung for. The Queen trio, which consisted of Oliver, Chloe, and Conner Queen had joined the Wayne trio, the Stark Trio, Rhodey, Hal, Thor and Jane, Bruce and Betty, Clinton and Natasha, Steve, and Nick Fury. Everyone, even Pepper, had just enough alcohol in their system to be considered buzzed but none of them were completely gone. Tony hadn't even drank half of what he would have predicted because it was so much more enjoyable to see his daughter having a good time.

Iron man was surprised to see Fury even cutting a little lose and having a good time with the team and his staff, at least until Conner, they _still _couldn't prove anything, let in the media which made him clam up again. They all stumbled up to the house, the parents wanting to sleep and the kids still wanting to party.

"I'll stay up and keep an eye on them," Tony said, letting Pepper lead everyone up to the spare bedrooms. He was surprised, as the kids started looking for a decent radio station on his stereo that Nick came walking over to him. "Go to bed, old man."

"No… I'm up," Nick said sitting down beside the man, "Hard to sleep after a big production."

Tony laughed, "You only thought I was bad!"

"They're all crazy," Nick conceded, "But they seem to govern themselves pretty well. You see Bruce eyeing Tori earlier?"

"It wasn't just earlier, it was all damn night. I've got to figure out what his problem is."

"Probably the same problem Clint and Steve had."

"No… No, it was different. I can't figure it out yet but there was definitely something eating at him."

The two spent the next few hours monitoring the kids, who didn't even go through two whole bottles of wine, at least they wouldn't have without Tony and Nick's help. They were too busy dancing, the girls having fun and the guys trying to piss the other off by dancing with their girl. Finally, at two thirty am, the elder Stark cut them off and told them no good would come out of staying up past then.

He would have cut them off at two but he'd been struggling with something and needed time to sort it out. There was something that just didn't bode well with him and Hal. He knew that Tori was going to do whatever she wanted, to a certain extent, and that he just had to try to guide her in the right direction; that was why he didn't want to openly say he didn't like her and the Green Lantern being together but… it just didn't sit the right way with him.

As Hal moved to pass him to follow Tori, Tony reached out to grab his arm, "Am I going to end up disappointed in you, Hal?"

Hal looked at him for a moment, trying to make sure they were on the same wave length and failing miserably, "No, sir."

"Good boy," Tony said begrudgingly, nodding to let Tori know it was okay to continue. Once they were all securely in their rooms, with Jarvis monitoring them for any movement or attempted escapes, Nick looked at him one last time.

"How hard was that?"

Tony huffed, "Felt like I was ripping my heart out."

"They why let him go with her?"

"…Because she's not my seven year old anymore. She's almost a legal adult, she has a good head on her shoulders, and being with Consetta… I have to face the fact that she's been an adult for a long time."

"Tony, do you think Consetta hurt her?" Nick asked carefully.

"I don't know. I have certain reasons to think that maybe she did, never to grave extremes, just some metal stuff that she probably threw at her, nothing too physical, at least I hope not. I haven't been able to bring myself to ask Tori that… I just… I don't know what I would do or… I don't know if I could handle…"

Nick just nodded, "I understand but you'll have to broach the subject eventually."

…

Please Review!


	6. Chapter 6

This one is a little... different. I own nothing! Review and let me know what you think.

...

The next morning Pepper rolled out of bed first, at eight. She decided to veto going into the office that day, figuring she'd just deal with the aftermath from her home office; it would be easier to have Tony and Tori around if she needed them. Downstairs Jarvis turned on the TV and neither were surprised when videos of their entrance and the wild party that followed were taking over the screen. They all looked amazing and Tori had handled herself beautifully which led to Pepper's confusion on why she'd even worried in the first place.

The media was already throwing innocent little Conner into a love triangle with Tori and Hal, while Jason and Cassandra remained the steady couple they'd been for several years now; although Cass and Tori were officially a 'hoemance'. Nick already had a brief description of Consetta's claims and Tori's recovery ready to be released to the media that morning, so no one was able to gossip about how Tony came to have Tori back. Shield had done an amazing job of explaining Tori's situation and discrediting her mother all at the same time, which Pepper was relieved to see.

"How did it turn out?" Oliver asked as he came wandering into the room.

"Better than expected," Pepper said, "The fact that so much was collected for the organization helped… and that everyone's clothes stayed on."

Oliver laughed, "I don't know, several of the boys lost their jackets… Has C.E.B. made an appearance?"

Pepper's brows furrowed, "I don't know what that is."

"Oh, sorry; years ago we used to call Consetta the 'C.E.B.' because Crazy Evil Bitch became such a mouthful. Tony didn't know what it stood for until after she took Tori to Italy."

"She was really that disliked?"

Oliver just looked at the red head and made her chuckle, "Well, no, she hasn't. Shield blocked her from the media and I'm guessing she hasn't had time to get here yet. Your son is in love with Tori though."

"Oh really," Chloe asked as she came in the room as well.

"Yep," Pepper confirmed, "He's trying to win her from Hal."

"Oh good lord, they really have nothing better to do then say things like that?"

"It's their job, babe," Oliver told her.

Slowly people started to join them, trickling in one by one. Tony and Nick were the last ones up, just after ten and following the kids closely. It was quickly decided that they'd eat breakfast quickly and spend the day outside by the pool, which was speedily becoming Tori's favorite place. Pepper brought her Laptop so that the two of them could sit around and look at colors and ideas for both her bedroom and party. It was decided that they'd do wardrobe shopping the next day, while Tony went to the Engineers Meeting, the only meeting that he actually looked forward to once a year.

Once everyone was settled at the pool Tony snuck into the house and pulled up a copy the 'Daily Bulge' which he'd bought while in New York. He wasn't surprised to see all of their pictures splayed across the cover. Quickly moving through it he noted that his editor must have let Peter do the small articles next to the pictures because they were all accurate to what had actually been happening.

The first series of picture were before and after pictures of the gala in the beginning and once the kids took over. There were also very pleasing accounts of how much more the gala gained than expected and praised the teens' initiative just below the pictures. Then there was a small section of pictures that focused on the 'next power generation' as they had been titled. There were snapshots of each of the four, five if you included Hal, who was still just out of his teens anyway. It was however, the last section that really made Tony's eyes water.

The last section was titled, 'The Cool Down' and only contained four pictures. The one at the top was of him and Pepper dancing, he recognized the dance as when the DJ played 'Every Breath You Take'. The bottom right corner of the picture was just barely over lapped by the second picture, which showed Tori and Cass sitting at a table, their heads resting on their hands and dreamy looks on their faces. The article beside the pictures summed them up perfectly.

_Tony Stark and Pepper Potts stole time and a dance, lost in their own little world for a few short and slow minutes, despite the raging party that 'The Next Power Generation' created. The females of NPG are obviously quite taken with the story book romance that Stark and his fiancé seem to have found in each other._

He tried very hard not to tear up as he looked at the next pictures. It showed him and Tori dancing but his eyes were clearly focused over her head, which was resting on his shoulder. The photo paired with it was of Hal, who was sitting off to the side, meeting his eyes bravely.

_As Tony Stark danced with his recently returned daughter, Tori Stark, he clearly had a message for her boyfriend, Hal Jordan, a pilot in the U.S. Air Force. The song, Stealing Cinderella, by Chuch Wicks, might just hold more similarities to the billionaire's situation then Mr. Stark is ready to admit but it's steal unclear if his daughter shares his 'love em & leave em' policy; could Jordan's days be numbered?_

Wasn't that the damn truth… but still the brief note next to the pictures would never explain how deeply the emotions the photos carried were to him. Tony quickly looked back at the other pictures, which showed the boom and bang of the party. He spotted one of Pepper and Tori dancing together, and one of Oliver hitting his son upside the head, which seemed to happen quite a bit. He couldn't help but wish that he knew more about Tori and Hal's relationship from the past three years.

"Great minds think alike," Said the blonde superhero as he came in from the pool, "You mind if I check and see what Chloe's cousin said about us over at the Daily Planet."

Tony quickly moved and headed across the room, pulling out his cell phone, "Hey Parker!"

"_Mr. Stark, all the photos in the paper have already been sent to your email."_

"At a boy, Park," Tony antagonized, "Keep New York safe for me, Spidey!"

_Parker chuckled, looking around to make sure no one else heard him, "Always, Iron Man!"_

Tony quickly hung up and moved back out to the pool.

It was around noon that Hal had to get back to base and Rhodey offered to give him a lift. The two seemed to get along well outside of work but Tori understood how her boyfriend could easily drive her uncle nuts when he was in the air. Once they were gone Thor also had to leave to get back to Asguard and Jane had to get back to the university, while Betty worked with her and left too. Nick wasn't going to leave but his baby sitting agents were getting tired of dealing with the 'C.E.B.', which their leader had mistakenly told them about as use for the woman's codename, so he departed too. That left the three trios, Bruce, Steve, Clint, and Natasha.

At some point one of the kids suggested chicken and by the end of it, almost everyone was playing. Pepper had been determined not to but Tony hadn't left her with too much of a choice after Conner, who was partnered with Tori in Hal's absence, made an 'old man' crack. The finals came down to Conner and Tori versus Tony and Pepper. It was close but Tony and Pepper won despite Tori's strength over her future step mom; Tony had far more muscle than the young man.

"Alright," Bruce Wayne said finally, "If we don't leave now I'll never get the two of you two back home."

The two bitched a little bit but moved to get their things. Tori walked them out, making Cassandra promise to come to her party and call her as soon as they got back to Gotham. Jason gave her a quick hugging, wishing her luck with her mom once the woman escaped Fury. After they were gone the Queen trio moved to follow them around two that afternoon, citing that the business world stopped for no one, and that Conner had to pack for college.

Once they were gone, Tony turned to look at Tori, "We haven't really talked about what you were going to do for college. I have an office and place in Boston but I understand if you don't want your parents standing over you while you're off at school."

Pepper could almost feel the heartache that it caused him to say that but she didn't but in. This was something that the two would have to work out together but she knew deep down that it was a defining moment in their relationship. They wouldn't be able to fully reconnect in one summer and if Tori chose to keep Tony at such a great distance so quickly, there was a majority chance that they'd never fully reconnect.

"When I was in Italy, that's exactly what I wanted," She admitted to him, "I wanted Mom to be as far away as I could possibly get her but it's different now. I know that you'll give me some space but I can't really imagine you being that far away again."

There were tears in her eyes at just the thought of Tony being that far away and that was almost enough to make Pepper cry too. She knew that the father and daughter were very close and she just didn't understand how a mother could deprive their child of that kind of father, that kind of bond, or that kind of love. If she and Tony had kids and then separated, god forbid, she might be hurt but she could never picture taking someone that special away from them.

"Don't cry, princess," Tony said pulling her close, "I promise that I'll be around."

It wasn't until later in the day, when Steve, who was quickly getting over his crush, and Bruce, who was still acting weird, finally left to get back to work at Shield, that Consetta finally showed up. The sun was starting to set and Pepper was trying to find a shade of blue that would please the young Stark, while said Stark was working on some sort of medicine that she didn't even begin to understand. They had moved from the pool to the dining room table, while Tony had practically run down to the workshop.

"What's he working on down there?"

"You know I can't tell you that," Pepper said with a sigh; it wasn't the first time Tori had tried to figure out what her birthday present was.

"No, not like that," Tori explained, "I know he has a holographic projector; is he using it?"

Pepper was going to ask why but a knock on the door stopped her. "Jarvis?"

"It's Agent Fury and Ms. Viglionni, Ms. Soon to be Stark."

"I told him… never mind, call him up here please!" She said just plain exasperated.

Before Tony could make it up the stairs the plain knock had been replaced with a crazed banging. Coming to the top of the stairs, the superhero caught his little girl's eyes and they both busted out laughing, moving slowly to answer the door.

"Sir?" Jarvis questioned.

"Go ahead and open the door, Jarvis," Tony instructed as they entered the foyer.

As soon as it creaked open Consetta was barging in, an obviously irritated Nick following just behind her. He and Tony looked at one another and the man made a very unflattering gesture at the billionaire's condescending smirk.

"My baby," Consetta wailed dramatically, trying to approach to girl who moved swiftly behind Tony. The woman froze but then turned on her ex, "You were hiding her from me! You had no right to kidnap my child!"

"He didn't kidnap me!" Tori yelled, angry now. She tried to move and charge her mother but Tony held her in place behind him.

"She's here of her own free will, she's happy, and you are not to _ever _come on my property again," Tony hissed venomously, "Touch anyone that I care about and I'll have assault charges slapped on you…."

The woman seemed to freeze, realizing how bad of a situation she was in but Tony couldn't resist highlighting some key points for her.

"You're in my country now, not yours. She's an adult now, not a little girl. I may not have the ability to deport you myself, but I can make you remaining here _very _difficult. The Italian government wouldn't negotiate custody with me and I can guarantee you that, at least for the next two weeks, you won't be negotiated with either. I'm going to suggest that you go home, settle down, and don't contact our daughter until she's ready to talk to you," he growled out.

Pepper had never once, in all her life, been afraid of Tony. She'd never once seen him threaten an innocent person and while Consetta certainly wasn't completely innocent, this was the farthest he'd ever gone with a person who wasn't necessarily trying to end the world. As that thought struck her, Pepper realized that she might be wrong in that. Tony really loved and would die to protect very few things in the world; she and his daughter were at the top of that relatively short list. Consetta trying to get to his daughter probably did feel to him like someone was trying to end his world.

While the realization sunk in, Pepper realized that she wasn't upset at what Tony was doing, though her rational brain said she should be. It was indeed, humans oldest, deadliest impulse: their need to protect their own at the cost of any other living creature. No, the knowledge that Tony would go that far for his daughter, even if he hadn't come right out and issued a lethal threat, meant he would by extension do the same for her and any of their future children; it only made her love him all the more.

It was what Consetta said next that made them all freeze for a moment, "I should have beaten a little more respect into you when you were younger; and then you wouldn't treat your mother this way."

Tony Stark had never hit a woman in his life. He'd never so much as playfully shoved his mother in annoyance as a little boy or, as many men do, gotten to the point that he struck something else to keep from hitting a woman. It was in that moment, in that one second, between Consetta finishing her sentence and when Nick and Clinton grabbed him that Tony knew what it felt like to have every intention of attacking a woman, though he wouldn't have given her much credit for her gender at the time.

The bitch ran from the house, knowing from the look in Tony's new squeeze's eyes that if she stayed, though Tony couldn't get past his holders, she wouldn't be safe. Pepper saw that Tony wasn't calming down even after Consetta was out of sight but as soon as Tori moved to snuggle him from behind, he went from Sabertooth Tiger to new born kitten. He pulled away from Fury and Clint, who had come with his boss because the man was afraid something like this would happen, and turned around to hold his daughter close.

The red head was far from feeling left out; knowing that what Tori had gone through was something she wouldn't wish on her worst enemy. It was even more heartbreaking to think that perhaps this was why she'd been so open to their relationship; she'd probably never known what having a mother was like. Nick and Clint signaled they were departing to her, probably to make sure Consetta left the country, but their leave was unnoticed by the two Starks.

By the time Tori had stopped sobbing; Tony was okay with letting her out of his crushing hold. Pepper gently moved closer, careful to notice how she'd be perceived by the girl, but openly accepted when the seventeen year old, who looked much younger in her upset, practically fell into the red head's arms.

…..

Please Review!


	7. Chapter 7

I've been looking forward to this chapter; read the challenge at the bottom after you read the chapter!

...

Over the next two weeks things were very hectic. Tony told Pepper that he would have his new assistant do the shopping and decorating with Tori, since they had her wardrobe, bedroom, and party to be worried about immediately, not to mention their wedding was coming up in just two months, but the glare he'd received quickly had him minding his own business and sticking to working on her presents.

The car was finished first thing Tuesday and looked amazing, which kept Tony from sending Dummy off to a Community College, or so he said. The girl's suit was a bit trickier since he couldn't exactly get her measurements the conventional way. He had all the parts and the design ready but, by the end of the first week he still hadn't found a way to get her onto the platform Jarvis required to get her measurements. Luckily for him that Friday, Tori provided him with a solution.

"Hey dad, are you using your holographic projector?" Tori asked, sitting outside the workshop on her laptop, when he came out to get ready for a Board of Directors meeting that Pepper had roped him into somehow.

"Why are you sitting down here?" he demanded.

Tori sighed, "You can't hear me when I knock because you've got the sound berrier up," she demonstrated by banging on the glass and unlike the phone incident, indeed he heard no banging, "I promised I wouldn't hack the shop," she showed him the laptop which clearly wasn't on a hacking screen, "and I don't have a passcode clearance to the intercom you have in there," which she had Jarvis confirm. "So I've been stuck out here trying to catch you."

By then they were heading up the stairs and Tony could only chuckle as he listened to her explain herself, his mind immediately hatching a plan and praying that Jarvis went along with it.. He quickly told Jarvis, "Get the portable scanner out here to get her identification into the system and get her a limited access code until after her party, and then upgrade it to full access."

"Of course Mr. Stark," Jarvis said quickly bringing the platform into the hallways, forcing Tori to stop following her father and step onto the moving sheet of metal, "Miss Stark, what will your six to twelve digit code be?"

Tori paused and thought about it for a moment. She wasn't sure, birthdays of people she knew were too common, so were anniversaries, death dates, and addresses. It took her a few minutes to think of something that she wouldn't forget but that someone wouldn't think of right away, "0-8-0-6-1-9-4-5".

"Ahh," Jarvis said but didn't comment further, quickly scanning her for identification/measurements.

By the time she was released, her father had long since disappeared into his bedroom and still hadn't answered her question. The teen growled and stomped off toward her bedroom, wanting to see how far Susan… or Sarah… or Olga, whatever her father's assistant's name was, had gotten with the list of things Pepper had left her to do for her room.

While it had been discussed that Tori wanted to get a job at the local hospital, it had been a short one. Her father wanted her to just hang around the house for the Summer, feel safe and secure, work on her 'mystery medicines', _which she needed his projector to do_, and just be a normal teenager, as much his daughter could be normal.

It was fine for now. She was spending a lot of time with Cassandra and Jason, who Bruce was loaning her every weekend, Hal… when he was in atmosphere, and everyone from her past that she'd lost. She also had her wardrobe, bedroom, and party planning to keep her preoccupied. While she didn't want to be a spoiled little brat it was nice to know that money wasn't always a concern or having her mother make her feel guilty for wanting to go out with friends and do things because of the cost. The paradigm shift of… pretty much everything in her life had her pretty preoccupied… _for now_.

Eventually she knew though that enough would be enough and she'd want to do something to keep her busy. If her dad was serious about not working at a hospital, which she sort of agreed with now because of the media which was already swarming over her party, then she'd thought about proposing to help at Shield. The agency pretty much only had one doctor and he was off on missions nine times out of ten; he couldn't be a very good doctor for his teammates if he wasn't around when they needed him. Bruce was another problem she was trying to isolate; that boy was too damn perceptive sometimes.

The assistant seemed to be doing fine, not that anyone would be able to screw up Pepper's detailed instructions unless they were mentally ill, Hal was off with the L.C.s, two galaxies over if his last message was still standing, Cassandra and Jason were doing their batty duty until Friday, and Tori couldn't do any more work unless she got her hands on her father's holographic projector. It was tempting to hack the projector, nothing else, just the projector, but she'd promised and knew that she couldn't do that.

She browsed the web for a little bit before ducking into one of the guest bedroom, farther away from the rest of the house's main parts, and locked the door. It only took a few minutes before she was logged onto a private, very secure, chat room.

…

Meanwhile at Shield, Bruce was about to pull his hair out. Never had he gone this long without talking to his partner but she hadn't been online for a week now and it was driving him crazy. Betty had finally gotten tired of him obsessing, though he maintained that he was just worried, after he blew her off for lunch for the third day.

He knew that she understood to a certain point. She was very secure in the knowledge that this wasn't some sort of online affair or way of cheating; Bruce had always let her read and even talk to this mysterious online partner. Bruce felt like he owed this person because they had created a drug that gave him a rational mind when the Hulk took over; although he was still impulsive he had enough control to make certain judgment calls when it came to people's lives even if not inanimate things.

That was completely understandable but Betty didn't understand that it went past gratitude. His partner was sympathetic and tried to understand, always listened to his theories and ideas that Betty just didn't comprehend, and challenged him on an intellectual level. It could never be romantic, to Bruce that would have been like dating his sister on the most horrific of levels. Still, like the Hulk in him would have done over any of his family should they still be alive, this girl had to be protected and kept from harm.

Her being absent from their skype chat room for a week, when they normally conversed at least once a day, on a slow day, was not something that Bruce took lightly. He'd been frightfully snappy and short tempered for the last few days with everyone, not just his girlfriend. Fury had finally told him to take a few days off, look into the girl if it bothered him that much, and get his head straight before coming back into the labs.

Researching her was part of the problem. Other than her skype name, PrincessAtom, and the work she did and showed him or did with him; Bruce literally knew nothing about the woman. She was smart, using an online source of skype instead of her home computer, keeping her real name anonymous, and using her profile picture instead of live feed when they used video chats. He had thought that Tony Stark's daughter sounded just like her but the way his looks were scaring the girl, it was pretty clear that she was not his online partner.

Suddenly that thought struck him and he grabbed his laptop. Jumping into the car Shield had designated to him, Bruce pushed the speed limits all the way from the agency's office in California all the way to Malibu. He wasn't sure why he hadn't thought of it before but if anyone could help him with this then it was Tony.

Walking up to the house, he wasn't even shocked anymore when the door just popped open.

"Welcome, Dr. Banner," Jarvis greeted, "Mr. Stark is at a meeting but he'll be back shortly."

"I thought the Engineer's meeting was yesterday?"

"It was, sir but Ms. Potts convinced him that he should attend a Board of Directors meeting."

Bruce chuckled, "Does the fact that she's 'Ms. Potts' again have anything to do with that?"

"…Perhaps."

"Well thanks for the update; I'm going to wait for him in the living room."

"Of course, sir."

Setting his laptop up Bruce quickly logged back into his account and to his amazement his partner's little marker was filled with a green check and his heart monitor started to beep.

_GreenFallout: Where the hell hav u been?_

_PrincessAtom: Excuse me?_

_GreenFallout: WHERE HAV U BEEN! It's not a difficult question!_

_PrincessAtom: What is up w/ u? I do hav a life outside of this chat room._

_GreenFallout: Wat kind of life? Wat do u do? Where do u liv?_

_GreenFallout: You scared me, going from talking multiple times a day to missing for a week._

_PrincessAtom: …_

_PrincessAtom: Look, im srry that I scared u bt we hav an agreement; no real life stuff._

_GreenFallout: BULLSHIT!_

_GreenFallout: and u knw it too._

_GreenFallout: we met b/c of my personal life; you can't tell me you've never figured out who I am_

_PrincessAtom: look, ive been busy. Dnt make an issue out of this._

_GreenFallout: ur important 2 me_

_GreenFallout: I, every part of me, needs to protect you. Tell me who u r so I cn._

_PrincessAtom: it's nt u that I dnt trust. Listen to me, Bruce._

_PrincessAtom: yes, I do knw who u r, I hav 4 a long time_

_PrincessAtom: im in a position right now, where I've got enough of a bullseye on my forehead_

_PrincessAtom: dnt get ur panties in a bunch im well protected_

_GreenFallout: By who?_

_PrincessAtom: doesnt matter. U knw the work we've done together _

_PrincessAtom: & rite now throwing ur enemies into the mix isn't going to help me._

_PrincessAtom: plz don't push this. Mayb the time will come where i think it's safe_

_PrincessAtom: bt im the one with our work, so im the one in danger._

_GreenFallout: I know that, that's why I want to help protect you_

_GreenFallout: I'd get the Avengers on board to help_

_GreenFallout: they mite nt knw it bt u've helped them 2_

_PrincessAtom: u need 2 let that b my call_

Bruce just stared at the screen for a long time. How could he accept that? Now that he knew she was in some sort of trouble could he really sit back and trust her to people he didn't even know of against an unknown enemy? Before he would reach a decision on his own she sent him another message.

_PrincessAtom: I think u need time to calm down bt dnt wrry_

_PrincessAtom: I doubt I'll be gone for a week from nw on_

_GreeFallout: Will I tlk 2 u 2nite?_

She logged off without answering and if that didn't make his monitor start going off again. He called this girl his sister but she felt more like a twin than just any old sister and now it felt like she was shutting him out. He might be prepared to accept that now wasn't the time to meet in person, he still hadn't decided yet, but he would not settle for being cut from her life. No, if their chats didn't return to normal he'd…

"Hey there Brucey," Tony greeted, returning from his meeting.

"Hey Tony," Bruce returned, not moving or bothering to put any enthusiasm into the greeting.

Tony paused, taking in his friend's appearance. The usually clean cut doctor was disheveled and depressed looking. From the way he was eyeing his laptop it either looked like he was going to throw it or short circuit it with his tears. Taking a seat on the coffee table Tony grabbed his friend and team mate's knee, "What's going on?"

Bruce closed the laptop and leaned forward slightly, "There's something going on with me and an online associate, who's become very important to me over the last few years… Tony, I need to know... I came over here because they'd fallen off the map and I wanted you to track them…"

Immediately the hand on Bruce's knee reached for the laptop but Tony found it held back almost a quickly, "Now, I can't let you do that."

"…Why not?"

"It might get her into more trouble than she's already got going on."

"What sort of…"

"I don't know," Bruce sighed, "and that's killing me but I have to get over it, at least for now… Tony, if it comes down to it, I need to know if you'll…"

"I'll do whatever you need me to do; no questions asked."

….

A/N: okay, the first person who can tell me the significance of Tori's code gets to ask me one question about the story that I have to answer, even if it's a spoiler, I'll tell you. You have to let me know both real life & story significance.

Also I'd love some reviews so I can get the next chapter up today too.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: This chapter is a set up for the rest of the story! I, of course, own nothing!

...

The next day Tori was being led to her fully redone room after being forced to sleep in a guest bedroom for a night. Tony had decided to sit this out, since he didn't do anything he didn't feel the need to steal any of Pepper's credit, which his being there would have done. The CEO was walking behind Tori, covering her eyes, and about to start vibrating with excitement. She had gone a little more extreme than originally planned but she felt that it would fit the girl perfectly.

"Okay, stand here… Okay, keep your eyes closed," Pepper instructed, moving over to the lights and flipping them on, "Okay, you can look."

Tori opened her eyes and gasped. The walls were painted black, with a mixture of neon pink, blue, green, and purple streaks all over them. The lamps, rugs, and other accessories were also a mix of the neon colors. There were posters of her favorite Rock bands, house from Harry Potter and Deatheather posters, and of course, a few Iron Man and Avengers posters. She let out a squeal but Pepper wasn't done yet.

"Watch this," she said flicking the second lightswitch.

A blue Hugh started to replace the lights over most of the room, but the neon colored accessories started to glow their own colors under the light. Tori squealed and practically knocked Pepper over with the force of her hug.

"So you like it?"

"I love it; it's amazing!"

"Good. Now that your room is done we need to get things finalized for your party; we still have to get a theme and a dress picked out."

"I really want to do a space theme; do you think we could?"

Pepper gave her a look, "Did Hal give you that idea?"

"No, actually. I was talking to Conner and he took sci-fi, so I started thinking what other themes I could wear a silver dress for and space just seemed perfect."

"Okay, we can definitely do space but he CAN NOT show up in his Green Lantern uniform."

"He'll be heartbroken."

A few hours later the two girls were hacking through silver dresses at their third boutique, unable to find the perfect dress for Tori. Pepper was trying to keep the girl's spirits up when her phone rang, "Hello?"

"_Fury called, no mission but he wants the Avengers to assemble. They found some information that he wants us to start planning around."_

"Be careful and play nice. Here, tell Tori bye then I'll get back on."

"Daddy?"

"_Hey baby, don't worry I just have to go sit through a meeting with the other Avengers."_

"Okay, be careful and I love you!"

"_I love you too, princess."_

"Be very careful; Fury doesn't just call meetings," Pepper voiced.

"_I'll keep you informed, I promise. Keep your phone on, I love you."_

"I love you too."

By the time she hung up Tori was coming back out of the dressing room in what could only be described as _the dress_. The ample view halter top tied behind the girl's neck and her back remained completely exposed, reminding Pepper of the dress she's worn the first time she danced with Tony. The dress kept her covered and was safe for dancing but was several inches shorter than the blue she'd worn to the gala. It was unthinkable for her to wear the same silver shoes from that night, so she ended up with very strappy stilletos which sparkled just as much as her glitter covered silver dress. While it was perfect and looked perfect on her, Pepper was slightly grateful that Tony wouldn't be at the house to inspect the outfit when they took it home.

….

In the Avengers conference room, Nick Fury was delivering some bad news.

"Loki escaped from Asguard and while we have the Green Lantern Corps on high alert, there have been no sightings of him throughout our galaxy. It is a safe bet that he will not, given what Thor has said about his mind state, take a very long time to resurface and attack earth with everything he and his alliances have. We don't know of anyone currently working with him but he could partner up with anyone not allied to the Corps at this point," Fury said, nodding to Thor.

"I don't think he's going to attack Earth first," Thor said, "He's been so angry with us personally that he'll come after the team and take us out before he tries to take over the planet again."

"Great," Clint muttered, "Just great; so what do we do just wait for him to come after us?"

"No, we have to find him and have a plan to defeat him before he has the chance to attack," Fury said turning to Bruce.

"What?" The doctor questioned, genuinely confused.

"Do you remember when we first created this team and we were all afraid of turning on one another," Nick demanded and everyone nodded, "I asked Bruce to develop certain ways to defeat each of your individual capabilities."

Bruce quickly took over, "I couldn't do it but I had an associate who was able to develop them; she'd done a lot of work with me and my lesser half, so I knew that she could do it and could be trusted to never let someone get it who was going to use it to harm us in a unnecessary capacity."

Thor growled, "Did she create something for you too, since she was fully armed to take out the rest of us."

"She did," Bruce said and that seemed to surprise all of them, "She has a cure for my radiation and a way to dispense it that could pierce even Hulk's skin. She also created the antidote that allowed me to control myself to a certain point... once the control I gained after the team assembled wasn't enough anymore."

"So," Tony said, giving Bruce a look that clearly stated they'd be having a private talk later, "How is this going to help us with Loki?"

"I believe," Bruce explained, "That she can modify whatever she would have used on Thor to stop his brother."

Fury nodded in agreement, "How long will it take for you to get in touch with this contact?"

Bruce bit his lip, "Give me twenty-four hours and I'll try to let you know something."

"I also want the weapons she designed to defeat each member of the team; we'll put them into the vault. That includes the virus to create more Hulks and the serum to give you control."

After the meeting was adjourned Bruce wasn't shocked to find Tony dragging him down to the garage, demanding some sort of answer.

"How in the hell did you meet this girl?"

"She was in a medical chat room and once we started talking we never stopped. Tony, I don't know what she's into but if she can't get me something to defeat Loki and the rest of the Anti-Avengers Weapons, I'm going to have you track her."

"If she's in trouble, why can't I just track her now?" Tony growled. They had a mad man after them and he wasn't much in the mood for pleasantries. If this girl could help them they didn't need to beat around the bush, all the while leaving his fiancé and daughter as potential targets.

Bruce sighed, "Please, we have a certain trust that I'm really hoping not to violate. Just give her the chance; I think she's earned that. She's done a lot of things for this team without knowledge or recognition."

"You've got twenty-four hours to have established contact and received confirmation that she'll cooperate; otherwise she won't be the first hack I complete," Tony threatened.

…

That night Tori was lounging around her new room when the emergency button she'd programmed into her skype account was activated. She knew that it was Bruce; he was the only one who could see the button, and quickly moved to lock her door.

_PrincessAtom: Wat's up?_

_GreenFallout: The Avengers assembled today_

_PrincessAtom: …&…_

_GreenFallout: Fury wants u 2 design a modification of the Thor weapon 2 defeat his brother_

_PrincessAtom: I thought loki was in prison in Asguard_

_GreenFallout: all I cn tell u is he escaped_

_PrincessAtom: I cn send u the Thor Weapon and the modifications 2 build the LW_

_PrincessAtom: in my current situation I dnt think I cn build it here_

_GreenFallout: when cn u hav all the AAWs 2 us by? Fury wants them._

_PrincessAtom: I'll have them shipped tomorrow morning & u'll hav LW by 2morrow midnite_

_GreenFallout: r u ok?_

_PrincessAtom: I'll talk 2 u 2morrow_

She couldn't deal with Bruce right now. A minor slip up could end with her being ousted to her father and all of the Avengers. With Loki on the loose she knew that now wasn't the time to reveal she was the creator of the Anti-Avengers Weapons; it really wasn't time to hand the weapons over to the team either. If being Iron Man's daughter wasn't enough of a target, being the AAW creator would surely do the trick; the fact that she'd perfected away to spawn a whole lot of Hulks wouldn't keep her profile low either.

After a few minutes of thinking she moved to send correspondence and the packages were being mailed from her safe house in Los Angeles to the Avenger's office. She might have downplayed just how many patients paid her in cash, often under the table work, which gave her a slightly larger bank account that she used strictly to help Bruce, not that he ever needed to know that. Once the weapons were shipped she set out to modify the Loki Weapon. The weapon she devised for Thor would have probably worked, it should have worked on anyone from Asguard, but she needed to check a few equations to be sure.

She worked well into the morning and had just finished the LW modifications, which turned out to be more complex than she thought, not in the debilitating injection itself but considering the different affects the injection would have to survive in order reach Loki through his staff instead of Thor's hammer. By the time she finished it was nine thirty and she had heard both Pepper and her father walk by, so going to sleep wasn't an option or she figured she'd be in more trouble than it was worth. This wasn't the first time she had to pull an all-nighter and go without sleep.

"Princess, what's wrong?" Tony asked as she drug herself into the kitchen.

"I found a breakthrough in one of my cures and didn't get to bed," She supplied groggily.

Pepper looked at Tony with eyes that looked more like a child pointing their finger at a sibling before she turned to Tori, "Why don't you go upstairs and go to sleep then?"

Tori seemed to study them for a moment, "You won't be mad?"

"No why would we…" Tony stopped himself and pinched the bridge of his nose. They had quickly learned that for all Tori's bravado she still carried certain misconceptions because of Consetta's unrealistic expectations of her, but he didn't want her to feel guilty for what her mother had caused, "We won't be mad, baby. I'm glad you found a break through and I know what it's like to get caught up in them and then forget to take care of yourself but that's what you have me for. Now, get back to your room and sleep."

Once Tori was back upstairs Pepper turned to her fiancé, "The fact that it's Sunday and you're going back to bed has nothing to do with that encouragement."

"Don't you mean 'we're' going back to bed?"

….

A/N: Please Review!


	9. Chapter 9

When Tori rolled over in the late afternoon she decided to send Bruce the LW so that he could get a move on with creating it. It wasn't a very hard build, she didn't think, hell the hardest part was not letting the wires touch and making the injection explode; her father could help with the building she was sure. Knowing that she had six more days, probably closer to five since it was already four in the afternoon, Tori could feel her excitement building.

Moving slowly out of her room, she wasn't sure what to do with herself. Bruce was taken care of, Hal wasn't coming back until the next day or so he guessed, and Jason and Cassandra had to cancel because a certain clown decided to be less than funny. Her dad was, by this time, either in the shop or at the office, checking out the weapons and realizing that they were all injection based and therefore, would require both he and Bruce to build.

Pepper's car was gone and, according to Jarvis, she was completely alone. She didn't like the feeling at all and quickly decided to see if Conner was online.

_Rock&RollDiva: r u on?_

_ScarletBow: at ur service milady_

_Rock&RollDiva: the house is empty & I'm bored_

_ScarletBow: id invite u 2 mine bt the JLA is here _

_Rock&RollDiva: srry, I knw impulse grates ur nerves_

_ScarletBow: if he'd stop callin my mom hot it'd b different_

_ScarletBow: stop laughing!_

_ScarletBow: is Hal back yet?_

_ScarletBow: … r u still there?_

_Rock&RollDiva: srry, couldn't breathe there 4 a sec_

_Rock&RollDiva: & no he's nt_

_ScarletBow: har har_

_ScarletBow: well we're finishing movin my stuff 2 skewl 2morrow_

_ScarletBow: hav 2 get it done b4 ur party Sat._

_Rock&RollDiva: some1 just came in, gotta check it out, good luck with the move, ttyl_

_ScarletBow: salute, ttyl_

Moving quickly down the hall Tori spotted her father, Bruce Banner, and Thor moving into the living room. Keeping a low profile she quipped a quick greeting to them and then moved into the kitchen, feigning getting something to drink. Her father was riled up and whether he knew it or not, was stroking her ego slightly.

"I've never seen weapons like that in my life," he told his team mates, "If that hit me and I didn't know about it… She could have teamed with Loki to protect herself and destroyed all of us."

"I told you she'd never do that," Bruce maintained.

"Those injections were using admantium needles; it would have pierced the suit, the Hulk, Steve's shield and we'd have all been royally fucked."

"I thought you said they were nonlethal?" Thor questioned.

"Even though the serum was like nothing I've ever seen," Bruce told him, "The ingredients wouldn't have killed us but paralysis, blood clotting, and a lot of pain would have really hurt us for forty-eight to seventy-two hours… and while the really bad effects would have been gone after seventy-two hours it looked like some sort of anti-dote would have been required to make them fully go away."

"Did she send us the antidote?" Thor demanded warily.

"No," Bruce admitted, pulling out his laptop, "I'll see if she's on so we can all have a little chat."

"Yeah, I'd like to chat her," her dad said frustrated, "You guys realize that if she ever goes super villain we're all screwed, to put it lightly."

"She won't… She's not on… But she did send me to mods for the Loki Weapon."

"Did she send an antidote with that?"

"You're really grinding on that antidote bone," Tony told his friend, "and no, it doesn't look like she did. Granted the injections are really all the same, it's how their dispensed that she built and modified for everyone."

_GreenFallout: it's not an emergency so im nt gonna press the button bt we do need to talk soon_

_GreenFallout: we cn tell there's an antidote & we want it; also IM says u cnt go super villain_

_GreenFallout: I'll stay by my computer, message me when u get on_

"Daddy, Conner says hey," Tori faked as she read Bruce's message from an invisible stance on her phone.

"Tell him I said hello," Tony commented, looking at Bruce's screen and praying for the girl to get on; whoever she was he wanted to get her on the team, and perhaps Stark Industries, before someone else got her. "Is he finished moving for college yet?"

"They're finishing now. Ollie wants him to enjoy the rest of the Summer and have this done before my party."

"I still can't believe he's letting you call him that."

Tori chuckled and moved to sit at the Kitchen Isle behind the superheroes backs. It was tempting to talk to them right then but there was too great a risk of one of them noticing that she was typing at the same time as PrincessAtom. Thinking over how easy the name would be to figure out if they already knew, she quickly disguised a laugh as a cough and moved to text her stepmom.

_Me: There's 2 much testosterone in the house_

_P_e_pper: Who did ur dad bring home?_

_Me: Thor & Bruce; the little guys online girlfriend impressed dad with her weapons_

_Pepper: Dnt let him read this; we both know how he'd take that statement_

_Me: LOL, when r u coming home?_

_Pepper: Soon, I'm just over at the office finishing ur dad's emails_

_Pepper: then im going 2 check out ur gparents place & c the decorations; wanna come over?_

_Me: dnt hav a car!_

_Pepper: get ur dad 2 pull one out of the garage, they all have gps_

_Me: Hold up I'll ask & I remember how 2 get to gma&gpas_

"Daddy," Tori asked sweetly.

Tony felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up and wondered if that's how he sounded to his father, "What do you want?"

"Can I borrow a car; Pepper wants me to meet her at Grandma's to look at decoration plans."

He sighed with relief, "I thought it was going to be something horrific; go down and grab one."

Her eyebrows raised, "…_If _you insist."

She didn't run but moved very quickly down the stairs; she was halfway down them when a desperate, "FREEZE!" rang out from the floor above. Smirking she stopped and leaned against the wall beside the stairs, pulling out her phone to text Pepper.

_Me: dad 4got I wasn't allowed in the garage, im surprised I cn still stand and breathe, lol_

Tony quickly appeared at the top of the stairs and pointed behind him, "Get back up here, now!" he glared as she walked up the stairs with a Cheshire like grin, "You're a bad girl; go wait on the porch and I'll bring the Audi around."

"How much did you enjoy that?" Bruce demanded as she came back up and Tony disappeared.

Tori moved to lean on the seat next to him, "It had its moments."

As she moved to take the car keys for the Audi, Tori wasn't surprised to hear her father's phone start ringing, "Hello… No, she didn't see anything… She only made it halfway down the stairs, Pep… I was distracted… Yes, I know we now have a teenager in the house; she just proved how devious she can be. I didn't know we had children eighteen years ago… Hello?"

Tori couldn't stop laughing as she sped away from the scene, her father still trying to talk to a dial tone. The roads were practically empty, at least for Malibu, and she was rather proud to say that she only pushed the speed limits a _little_ bit. Pepper hadn't gotten there yet when she pulled in so she decided that it was safe enough to reply to Bruce.

_PrincessAtom: I dnt hav long, wat's up_

_GreenFallout: this is IM; ur a genius!_

_PrincessAtom: funny, my father says the same thing_

Tori didn't know why she couldn't resist, well yes she did, but still she knew that it was a bad idea to poke the bear like that.

_GreenFallout: Ignore the idiots; IM just wants u 2 come make him money_

_GreenFallout: yes, i do!_

_GreenFallout: cn u get us the antidote & cn we open a vid chat; mite be easier from this end_

_PrincessAtom: the ad is on its way now bt no, no chat._

_GreenFallout: afraid I'll figure out where u r_

_PrincessAtom: we agreed nt to push this; im getting off now_

She signed out quickly, sighing with exasperation. The boy just didn't know when to quit and he was making their lives all the more difficult by pushing. If anyone was going to be able to track her, it was going to be her father; Tori wasn't crazy enough to think that she could out hack him. If she thought that it would make a difference she'd stop talking to Bruce completely but that would just push him to tracking her that much faster. She was hoping that she could string him along with short conversations every day or so, at least until the Loki threat had passed or she started working for Shield.

Pepper pulled up but she went unnoticed for a few minutes. She could tell that whatever Tori was thinking about was really starting to get to her. After a few more minutes, the CEO moved to lean on the Audi, next to the teenager, "What's going on?"

Tori knew that she wouldn't get away with saying nothing so decided that half-truths was better than none, "I feel like I have a bullseye on my forehead."

"Your dad would never let anything happen to you."

"He can't be around all the time Pepper; even if he moves to Boston he can't be right there ALL the time… I just feel like a sitting duck."

"Is this because of Loki's escape?" she probed gently.

"… something like that."

Pepper knew that Tori had nothing to worry about. In less than a week she'd have a suit and she'd be perfectly capable of defending herself, at least until Tony could get to her. She still couldn't explain that to the girl so placating her worries was the only option, "Hey, you're with us now. I know your dad will do whatever it takes to make you feel safe and I promise you that it will all work out soon."

She just grinned, "Thanks Pepper, you're right. I know it'll work out."

"Good, now let's go through the plans."

The house was still being cleaned and all the valuables removed. Tony was hell bent on throwing a party, that didn't mean Pepper trusted almost three hundred teenagers to mind the precious things that Maria Stark had collected in her life.

"Alright, so the DJ will be there, dance floor there; I figure we can try to keep the dancing and partying out here and the catering and adults inside," Pepper said as they walked around the pool.

"Do you think Dad will end up in the pool?" Tori asked.

"I'd love to be able to say no but I've known your father for more than a day," Pepper told her, "We're doing a solar system replica over the pool and a since Hal is sending us pictures of foreign planets we're doing decorations based off those throughout the rest of the yard. The band is going to be set up over there…"

"I thought Dad got a DJ?" Tori asked.

"He did but he also got Nickelback to perform."

The jumping, squealing, and hugging fest that took place after that ensured Pepper that Tori had completely forgotten all of her woes about Loki and being a 'sitting duck'. They quickly moved through the rest of the party, getting the guest of honor's approval on everything before heading home in their separate cars. Tori arrived ahead of her stepmother and apparently made quite the entrance before running up to her room.

"Now that it's been confirmed that I'm the best dad ever," Tony said, still stunned, "Can you enlighten me on what I did to earn the title."

"I told her about Nickelback."

"Pepper, you know that was supposed to be a surprise. And you accused me of being a present ruiner!" He growled.

"I just wanted to make her feel better," Pepper said quick to play the guilt card, "She started feeling like a sitting duck because of Loki and I just wanted to make her forget about it."

Suddenly Tony had forgotten all about the band, "Was she okay? Did something happen? What did she say?"

"She just said that she felt like she was defenseless and was realistic in saying that you couldn't be around all the time."

"Yeah but after Saturday…"

"I know that Tony but I couldn't tell her about that present so I went for divulging the band," Pepper rationalized, "At least that was a temporary solution."

….

By Thursday Tori had everything answered for her party and was ready to get to it. Her dad had been talking about how her present was almost ready and how much she was going to love it. As she moved to his room, her laptop balanced on one arm and a soft drink in the other, she was determined to get an answer to her question this time.

"Dad, can I use your holographic projector?" She asked, turning sharply to follow him as he headed speedily for the workshop.

"You could have any other day, princess, but I've got to start a new project for the engineering department. Ask sooner next time," he said, disappearing behind the door to his shop.

She stared at the door for a moment before proceeding to place her laptop gently on the ground, put her drink beside of it,… and jump up and down, pitching a fit royal of any pre-schooler.

This continued for several minutes, with her oblivious to the person standing at the bottom of the stairs. By the time she finally calmed down and noticed him, all she could do was point a finger saying, "Not one word!"

"Oh don't worry," Rhodey told his niece, "I might not know what he did but I know how he can be… So what did he do?"

She gracefully picked up her things and moved toward the stairs, "It's not even worth repeting."

Rhodey quickly moved to enter his code, "What did you do to my Baby Girl?"

"What?" Tony asked as he finished a few mods to Tori's suit, "I haven't done anything."

"You might not know what you did, but you did something… I heard that Loki escaped and you were having personnel problems."

"What have I told you about talking to Fury; it rots brain cells."

"So what's going on?" Rhodey demanded.

Tony sighed. He hadn't actually talked to anyone about Bruce's situation and he figured if anyone could help him rationalize everything that was happening it was his best friend.

"Okay, check this out. Bruce meets this girl online in a medical chat room, they get to be really close, and no it's not romantic I've already checked," Rhodey quickly closed his mouth, "Anyway apparently she's like, me-smart, and helped him control the Hulk. While doing this created a full-fledged antidote for Bruce's BFF and replicated the effects of the radiation."

"Are you saying she could create a Hulk army?"

Tony nodded, "So then along comes the team and back when we were all afraid of turning on one another, Fury decided to create Anti-Avengers Weapons in case one of us turned on the group. He asked me and Bruce to design them at two different times but we never could seem to get it right separately. At some point Bruce asks his girl to create them and she does. They're bad Rhodey; they could kick all of our asses."

"So you do have them in your possession? Have you done any testing?"

"That's the thing, we're going off the girl's paper work because we only have one of each weapon. I checked out how they were built from the diagrams but there is no way to get the serum out of weapons to check it without ruining it. The only reason we know how bad it could be for all of us is, like I explained to the team once me and Bruce put our heads together, all the serums are the same for each of us. It's the weapons that are custom to each of our weaknesses. So the serum that we're using in the Loki Weapon is the same one that would be used on all of us."

"Wait, go back!" Rhodey said, "Why are you guys building this weapon?"

"That's where it gets complicated," Tony said, "The girl sent us all the information because she's in trouble. Bruce read it to mean that she's in danger somewhere and I didn't call him on it but I disagree. The woman says she's in trouble, not necessarily danger."

"There's a difference?" Rhodey said.

"Yes, you had to see it in context," Tony explained, "but anyway, she did the reworking of the Loki Weapon and then sent us the plans to build."

"So what's the problem; it seems like it's all under control."

"Bruce says that the girl is acting weird and he's afraid that if we don't go ahead and track her then someone else will find a way to. Right now all people have been told is that there are indeed Anti-Avengers Weapons but eventually people are going to start wanting to know, especially bad guys, who made them."

"Like you and Jericho," Rhodey realized, leaning back in his seat.

Tony nodded, "I know that it's none of my business really but Bruce asked me to track her down if things didn't go back to normal soon. On the one hand I understand why she doesn't want to be known for this, it'll be so dangerous for her, but on the other hand so much could go wrong. If we need her and she's not online or one of the bad guys discovers who she is or just where she is they could…"

"It's a tough spot," Rhodey said, still digesting the situation, "Have there been any sightings of Loki?"

"No, whatever hole in the ground he's found, he's not so much as popped out for fresh air."

"What does Thor say?"

"Thunder bolt's lost patience with his little brother. By now the team's just as much family as Loki and we've never tried to kill him…"

"Uhh, Tony…"

"We've moved on from that, thank-you. I'd probably be more willing to bide my time with the girl if Tori wasn't freaked out over the whole thing. I mean you come home to feel safe, not have a crazy guy out to get your family."

"Tori probably just got spooked but she knows you'd never let her get hurt."

"Wouldn't be the first time I've dropped that ball."

….

Please, Please, Please Review!


	10. Chapter 10

Okay, this is the last chapter before the birthday party. I haven't been getting many reviews for the last few chapters so I'm thinking that I might discontinue this story. I'd rather cut it off before I write the next ten or so chapters that I'm thinking the story would need if I continued it. I just don't want to waste time if I've lost most of my readers... We'll see.

...

Friday night Tori was all sorts of jittery. She and Pepper had agreed that it would be better for Tony not to know about her dress in its entirety until the next night when they left for the old Stark mansion. There had been a slight debacle about who she was going to ride to the party with, Hal or her parents but Tony had compromised, inviting her boyfriend to join them in the limo. Though Pepper knew why Tony was so willing to compromise about the limo Tori was both astonished and proud at how he handled the situation. She didn't know that the four of them were going to be driving the mustang to the event and Hal didn't find out until after that particular discussion. Pepper also knew that Tony wasn't as fond of Hal as he portrayed himself to be, something was making her fiancé's daddy senses tingle.

_WingedLuvrBoy: when do I hav 2 b ar the house again_

_Rock&RollDiva: b here 7, we leave 7:30, get there 8_

_WingedLuvrBoy: remind me why I dnt just stay over 2nite_

_Rock&RollDiva: b/c u want 2 stay over 2morrow & dnt want 2 push my father 2 far 2 fast_

_Rock&RollDiva: plus u hav flite training 2morrow_

_WingedLuvrBoy: that's rite_

_WingedLuvrBoy: u heard from ur mom?_

_Rock&RollDiva: no bt that's probably b/c I blocked her_

_WingedLuvrBoy: ahh…_

_WingedLuvrBoy: Loki was spotted 2 galaxies ovr from Asguard_

_Rock&RollDiva: so he's getting closer_

_WingedLuvrBoy: look it this way, the teams been moved to earth semi-permanently_

_WingedLuvrBoy: so im here to keep u safe_

_Rock&RollDiva: if I didnt knw the kind of crazy we were dealing w/ id be offended_

_Rock&RollDiva: every1 keeps saying they'll keep me safe; I'm a big grl u knw_

_WingedLuvrBoy: u r; strongest woman I knw as a matter of fact_

_WingedLuvrBoy: this is also a crazy god; just try to keep everything in perspective_

Tori was tempted to yell at the screen. She knew just how strong Loki was, she also knew how weak he was; SHE DESIGNED THE WEAPON TO KICK HIS ASS! Saying that wouldn't help her keep her cover but after doing so much for Bruce over the last few years she couldn't help but feel that it was time for a little recognition to be due…

She just had to stay strong in the knowledge that her time would come. While it would never be completely safe to be the AAW creator, the time certainly wasn't safe when a crazy man was out to kill the Avengers and unless they needed her that desperately, Tori knew that she was safer laying low.

_Rock&RollDiva: yeah, I knw_

_Rock&RollDiva: I better go down stairs & see what's up with Dad's latest project, tty 2morrow_

_WingedLuvrBoy: alrite, luv u_

_Rock&RollDiva: luv u 2_

She signed out and quickly headed for the living room. Pepper was there with Jane and Betty while the boys were down stairs going over the game plan for building the Loki Weapon and starting the construction of it. Quickly moving into the living room Tori laughed at the worried look on all three women's faces.

"What is wrong with you three?"

"Tony and Bruce were talking about how difficult it was going to be to build this… thing," Jane explained, "Got us all wound up and the house has already shaken three times."

"Come on, I'm sure it's not that hard," Tori said and suddenly something below them exploded, shaking the whole upstairs. "Then again, maybe not."

Pepper worriedly turned on the intercom, "Tony! What's going on?"

"_Everything's fine," Tony coughed, "Bruce just isn't allowed to use spark plugs ever again!"_

Tori was fighting not to laugh. She'd built six of these things all by herself and a full grown, superhero team couldn't seem to pull it off together, despite the fact that they had all her work and diagrams. Pepper quickly sat back down once it was confirmed that everyone was in fact okay and they team had moved to start working again, leaving the intercom on.

No sooner had Tony given the go ahead then the house shook again and she heard everyone below them coughing.

"_Rat mother fucker!" Her father exclaimed, "This… this… THING is impossible! Bruce get her in the fucking chat room now or I'm going to hack you, hack her, and then drag her here to build this fucking thing even if she's screaming and fucking kicking!"_

Tori couldn't even breath she was laughing so hard but even though it was funny, she knew that her father's threat was serious. Through her laughter she pulled out her phone, "I have to tell Hal about this!"

Pepper rolled her eyes at the girl's antics but had to admit that it was slightly hilarious the way Tony reacted. She watched the girl go back to her room, the phone up to her ear and Hal's voice on the other end sounded to be scolding, clearly not enjoying the humor of the situation. Jane and Betty thought it was funny too and couldn't contain their giggles as the man continued to cuss about everything that moved.

"Tony, I realize that you're angry, but is anyone hurt?"

"_Not yet but if Bruce doesn't hurry up, him and his little girlfriend are going to be in a fucking world of hurt!"_

"Oh Tony, you know it's not like that, and he can't magically make her appear," Betty defended her boyfriend. She knew that PrincessAtom had been backing off a lot lately and honestly she was just as upset as Bruce. The girl had given Bruce the sister he never had and a sense of family, not to mention that she was able to be a sounding board and partner for the man that Betty just could never be, no matter how many degrees she obtained or how smart she knew herself to be.

"_Oh, I'll make her magically appear all right! I'll pull a fucking Houdini right now! Give me that damn laptop."_

"_No, no," Bruce said, "Look, she's on!"_

Down in the basement, Bruce was holding the laptop as far away from Tony's reach as he could. He was clicking the emergency button over and over, just trying to get some sort of reply so the man would calm down. Seeing her marker jump to life, he felt a huge weight lift from his shoulders.

_PrincessAtom: Calm down, im here_

_PrincessAtom: u only hav 2 hit the button once_

_GreenFallout: srry, did I get u in trouble_

_GreenFallout: I dnt giv a flying fuck_

_GreenFallout: how the fuck r u supposed 2 build this thing?_

_GreenFallout: weve gone through 5 injections in the last hour & every1 has blown up on us_

_PrincessAtom: srry, bt cn I knw who's talking?_

Tony completely jerked the laptop away from Bruce and less than two minutes later a request popped up on the screen.

_HotRodRed would like to be your friend. I promise not to trace/hack you._

_PrincessAtom has accepted HotRodRed's friend request._

_PrincessAtom: Do u want directions?_

_HotRodRed: u hav directions?_

_HotRodRed: & U DIDN'T BOTHER 2 SEND THEM BEFORE NOW?_

_PrincessAtom: no I dnt bt I cn make u some. Ive built 6 of them & cn put the steps on paper for u_

_HotRodRed: did u hav this hard a time?_

_PrincessAtom: I did… actually it took me over fifty injections 2 get it right_

_HotRodRed: send me the stupid directions_

_PrincessAtom: let Black Widow read them; ive heard men rnt good w/ directions_

_HotRodRed: im flipping you the bird rite now._

The team slowly moved to start cleaning up his disaster area of a workshop. Luckily he'd moved Tori's presents over to the protected area so that they wouldn't get damaged in the trial and error situation. None of them were surprised when the girls came down and helped with the clean up.

"Where's Tori?"

"Well, she came down to see the last two explosions but after she knew that you were all okay, decided to go have a bull session and laugh at your pain and failure with Hal, who didn't find it as funny."

"Of course she did!" Tony said. He, like Bruce, had thought that maybe Tori was PrincessAtom but based on her actions it didn't seem likely. If he'd had any doubts they were squished by the fact that Tori had been with Pepper the last time he talked to the mysterious person under Bruce's screen name.

Given the impossibility of the theory, he wrote it off and didn't mention it to his daughter, who had been freaked out enough by Bruce's stares when they met. Bruce still had certain doubts about whether or not Tori could be the mysterious PrincessAtom but Tony was positive that his friend was wrong, "Well luckily for us, our associate has a more sympathetic approach to our difficulties."

Suddenly the computer sounded with a new message and when Tony downloaded the document, there were indeed step by step instructions on how to build an Anti-Avengers Weapon. He quickly noted that the document wouldn't last very long.

"We've got to get moving on this. We get to have it open this one time but after we close or minimize it, it's rigged to be completely deleted."

"You wouldn't be able to recover it," Steve demanded. He'd never seen something Tony Stark couldn't recover.

"Not me, not you, not god almighty. It's going to be gone. I can't even copy and paste it or it would completely disappear."

"Just great!" Clint mumbled.

Following the instructions like they were the only thing standing between them and death itself, the team started to build the Loki Weapon. The girls were fast to move out of their way, hell the whole team took a step back bar Bruce and Tony since they were the only ones who really knew what the directions were even saying, the rest of them just following their orders when they gave them. It took them until two a.m. the next morning to complete the stupid weapon and once it was finally done all of them were exhausted.

Natasha had been forced to read the directions, staring at the screen almost constantly for the last few hours because, while Tony wasn't particularly a superstitious guy, he wasn't going to tempt fate and let one of the guys read them. Steve and Thor had been the muscle of the operation, Tony and Bruce the brains, and by default Clinton had turned into their errand boy and communication with the outside world.

Dragging himself upstairs, Iron Man wanted nothing more than to crash into a bed and never get up again. The others had already escaped to their designated guest rooms, some having to carry their girlfriends who had fallen asleep on the couch in the living room. He was lucky because Pepper had still been up, working on her/his emails and trying to catch them up since the last two weeks had been so very crazy.

He decided to go in and kiss Tori goodnight. Opening the door she was fast asleep but when he touched her shoulder she stirred slightly, "Daddy?"

"Happy birthday, princess."

"Thank-you; did you finish your project," she asked, a small smirk appearing on her sleepy features.

Tony chuckled, "I'm going to let you get away with that because it's your birthday but the next time I have a super secret project, you are helping me little lady."

"Okay," she slurred slightly.

"Go back to sleep," he said giving her a quick kiss.

Once the door was closed Tori quickly pulled her phone out from beneath her pillow.

_GreenFallout: r u still there_

_PrincessAtom: I am_

_PrincessAtom: I stayed near the computer in case u needed me_

_GreenFallout: no ur directions were very thorough_

_GreenFallout: & well we finished it_

_GreenFallout: took the whole team_

_GreenFallout: how did u do it alone?_

_PrincessAtom: skill_

_GreenFallout: I want 2 actually talk 2 u_

_PrincessAtom: we had this discussion already_

_PrincessAtom: bt its late & im sure we r both tired_

_PrincessAtom: so let's nt rehash it 2nite_

_GreenFallout: tru dat_

_GreenFallout: 4 now_

_GreenFallout: good nite!_

_PrincessAtom: good nite_

Bruce was about to shut the laptop when suddenly it started blinking orange. He was surprised to see a friend invite had just popped up.

_HotRodRed would like to be your friend. Friend me so we cn talk b4 we crash 4 the nite._

_GreenFallout accepted HotRodRed as a friend._

_GreenFallout: what?_

_HotRodRed: it cnt b Tori_

_GreenFallout: r u sure_

_HotRodRed: I was pretty sure b4 b/c she was with Pepper the 1__st__ time I talked to PA_

_HotRodRed: I just went to kiss her good nite & she was out like a lite_

_GreenFallout: so?_

_HotRodRed: dnt b.s. me Brucey; I knw u've talked 2 her_

_GreenFallout: fine, so its nt Tori._

_HotRodRed: thank-u; now leave my kid out of ur crack pot theories!_

_GreenFallout: wat would u hav done if it had been Tori?_

_HotRodRed: good nite_

_GreenFallout: we r talkin bout this l8er_

….

If you're still reading, it doesn't have to be long. Just a quick 'don't stop, dumbass' will suffice. If not this will probably be it!


	11. Chapter 11

Alright now! Let's all take a deep breath and calm down, no need for death threats! Really more than the threats I can't stand criers or broken hearts so I decided to get this up today! LOL!

Please Review!

I own nothing.

...

The next morning Tori rolled out of bed and she was giddy with excitement. She hadn't been this excited for her birthday in a long time and she hoped that the team wasn't completely spent since they'd had such a long night the night before.

"Good morning, Miss Stark," Jarvis said, "and Happy Birthday."

"Thanks, Jar-Jar."

"Everyone is waiting for you in the kitchen," the A.I. explained, "I believe everyone is waiting to let you pick breakfast."

Tori all but skipped into the kitchen. Indeed everyone, including the Wayne and Queen Trios were present, screaming happy birthday so loudly that everyone in California heard them. Her dad and Pepper were the first to hug her, then Rhodey and Hal, who had apparently driven together from the base, fought over who would be second. Conveniently their scuffle left room for Cassandra and Jason to slide in for a shared second, and even Conner for a happy third.

When breakfast began they were all eating French toast but when it ended in a birthday food fight Pepper couldn't even fake being irritated because she was laughing to hard. They spent the day at the pool, which is where the large group seemed to always end up, and it had already been the best birthday Tori had ever had. By three all the girls were heading inside to start getting ready and the guys were busy trying to drown one another.

Tony was getting ready around six thirty; his outfit was a bit more relaxed since it was a birthday party. His charcoal dress shirt and black dress slacks were dimmed by a black leather jacket instead of a suit jacket. Pepper's was dressed in a gold chiffon that fell just below her knee and a gold and black shawl. Though he hadn't seen the kid yet, Tony had it on good authority, meaning Rhodey's authority, that Hal was wearing a similar outfit to his own but switching to a green dress shirt and suit jacket, much to Pepper's annoyance.

There was just one problem in Tony's eyes, "I haven't seen Tori's dress yet."

"There's a reason for that," Pepper told him pointedly, "but just remember she's an adult now."

"That bad huh?"

"I wouldn't call it bad but you're going to have a fit."

"Right," Tony said, making a few clicks on his open laptop.

"What are you doing?"

"Just you know, making sure the suit is all charged up."

"You're not hurting Hal," Pepper said.

Tony snorted, "I wasn't planning on it but if it's really as bad as you're claiming, he might need some help by the end of the night."

She had every intention when she opened her mouth of scolding and correcting him but then she started to think about what he was saying and really, he wasn't wrong. After a moment it was silently decided that they wouldn't talk about it anymore but, of course, Tori's timing had always been impeccable.

"Hey, Uncle Rhodey wants to know if you're ready yet?" she questioned.

He just froze for a moment, and then motioned for her to turn around. The teen sighed but did so, ready for an outburst and genuinely surprised when it didn't come. Her father simply said, "Oh yes, Hal's going to need a lot of help."

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing," Pepper butted in.

Tony just decided that he'd have to deal with it, "Princess, you're getting one present in a few minutes and then one when we get back tonight, cool?"

"Cool," she said.

"Go tell your Uncle we're ready."

Once she was gone Pepper turned to her fiancé, "Why are you waiting for the suit?"

"I was gonna take her flying tonight," the red head gave him an apprehensive look, "You have nothing to worry about; I'll be with her the whole time."

Sighing Pepper said, "If only I could believe one of those statements."

Tony covered his daughter's eyes as he led her out the front door. Rhodey had pulled the mustang around and it was parked under the lights, a big red bow sitting happily on the hood. Tori was practically vibrating from excitement and it was infections to the entire group that was gathered around to watch.

"Are you ready?"

"Yes!"

"Are you sure?"

"Pepper!"

"Tony, for the love of God, show the baby her present before she spontaneously combusts."

"Okay in, three, two, one!"

He pulled his hands away from her eyes and the girl froze, taking in her present before turning to him.

"It's mine?"

"All yours…"

She jumped on her father, knocking him two feet back before he could even think to catch himself. Pepper was taking pictures and quickly threw her stepdaughter the keys as soon as the teen backed off her father.

"Alright, we're going to let everyone else go in the limo first then me, you, Pepper, and Hal are going in your car," Tony told her.

Hal was a pilot; he'd been threw a lot of scary things in his life. With that said he had never actually let Tori drive before, since she never had a car, and he did not understand how her parents could sit in the back laughing at her breakneck speeds. Tony had decided that they would go for a drive around the estate to get the excitement out of her system before following the others to the old Stark mansion but really, the Green Lantern was convinced that they wouldn't be making it to the party.

"Relax, Hal," Tony said suddenly, "She's not going to crash."

"How do you know that?" he shouted to be heard over the wind from the down convertible top.

"Like I would put a scratch on my baby," Tori said, "but I _am_ leaving you for my car!"

At the horrified look on his face, Pepper chimed in, "Don't feel bad Hal, cars are my biggest competition too."

By the time they drove up to the red carpet the party was in full swing. Peter took extra pictures of the car, figuring that he could do a spread on the new love in Tori Stark's life and got even more of her in the scandalous dress that he was positive Tony would threaten to fire him for spotlighting. The other reporters, some of which had it out for Tori because of Tony's… escapades, narrowed in on her dress as well but most would admit that she was too hot and pulled it off beautifully.

It was a wild party to say the least. Walking in Tori was immediately swept up by all of her friends from Italy and had to go dance with all of them. By the time Nickelback started performing the NPG had found their way back together and were standing at the front of the gathered mini-concert. The birthday girl and Cassandra sang along with every song; which turned out to be a seven song set, each of Tori's favorites.

By some miracle Tony did not end up in the pool however Hal, who had done something to piss off his team during the previous days, was not as fortunate. He was not happy as he pulled off his ruined jacket and the laughter coming from his _girlfriend_ was not helping his attitude. While some adults wandered out once in a while to make sure no one was dead or dying, Pepper was true to her word and kept them corralled in the house for the majority of the night.

Tony let Parker in, since the kid was the only photographer he trusted, and the kid got several shots of Tori and Cass dancing to 'If Everyone Cared' and Tori and Pepper slow dancing to 'I Hope You Dance'. He also decided to take photos of the decorations and research the catering that Pepper had chosen, so that he could do a section on the teen's theme. While he couldn't prove it, Peter was also able to get it on good authority that it had been Tony who convinced the L.C.s to throw their leader into the pool.

After a while, Tori needed a few minutes to herself, to relax and take everything in. The party was everything the teen had ever dreamed it could be and despite her boyfriend's bad attitude she was happier than she had been in a long time. Her dad and Pepper were slow dancing when she slipped into the side room where she wouldn't be seen but could still watch everything.

After the first slow song ended, another began, and it was one she knew by heart.

"May I have this dance?" she heard a voice behind her that brought a smile to her face instantly.

She turned and quickly fell into step with her old friend, "Shouldn't you be doing your job, Petey?"

He laughed, "Well, normally I would be but see, I knew that the slow version of 'Heaven is a Place on Earth' is the birthday girl's favorite song and couldn't let her sit it out."

"Wow, she must be pretty lucky to have you as a friend," Tori smiled, laying her head on the man's chest.

"She is, even though she forgets that sometimes… why didn't you tell me about your dad, Tor?"

"…It wasn't like that Petey. I didn't want to tell anyone because I didn't think he wanted me anymore."

Peter sighed, looking out at the party, "Your mom should be dropped off a cliff."

"Are you volunteering?"

"Sorry but that would go against the whole superhero thing," Peter joked as another slow song started and the lyrics distracted him for a moment.

_I finally asked you to dance on the last slow song_  
_Beneath that moon that was really a disco ball_  
_I can still feel my head on your shoulder_  
_And hoping that song would never be over_

_I haven't seen you in ages_  
_Sometimes I find myself wondering where you are_  
_For me you'll always be eighteen and beautiful_  
_And dancing away with my heart_

Tori quickly shook off the fitting lyrics and returned to their conversation, "That's right… how is that going?"

"Well, apparently, it's a lot less destructive to have one superhero in New York instead of a whole team that's fighting a war."

"_Really?_"

"I know, I was just as shocked as you," Peter said, enjoying the closeness even as the song came to an end, "Well, back into the fray!"

"Thanks Peter."

"For what?"

"For Catalina, for letting me borrow your car, for just being there… for everything."

Peter smiled, "Anything for you, Tor."

By the time Tori blew out her candles, everyone was ready to eat a go home, the higher than life partying taking a toll on even the rowdiest of rebel rousers. The limo left to take their friends home around two, Oliver and Bruce practically dragging their high stamina partiers from the events by their earlobes and on threats of death. Tori left a little more willingly once her friends were gone, the thought of her next present being at home spurring her on slightly.

"Pull around to the garage," Tony said when she moved to park in front of the house. Once they got to the garage door he opened it with the remote that he'd put in his pocket before they left. Everyone hopped out of the car, Hal was just as curious as his girlfriend, since he hadn't been told what the second gift was.

In the center of the room was a large black cylinder, though it had a glass front Tori couldn't tell that yet. Tony went over to the switch of the wall, "Ready?"

Tori nodded, any tiredness she'd been feeling leaving her at the adrenaline that was coursing through her veins.

Flipping the switch Tony watched as the case began to rotate and Tori laid eyes on her suit for the first time. It followed the same color pattern as Pepper's but the red of his wife's suit was replaced by royal blue and the inner chest plate, shoulder plates, upper leg guards, and face mask were bronze instead of silver.

"Oh my God; I have a suit!" she squeaked.

"You do," Tony confirmed and this time he was literally floored by the hug his daughter gave him. He let her hop around the workshop for a minute, Pepper helping to pull him off the ground, then decided to rein her back in, "Ready to fly?"

That got her to pause, the light in her eyes multiplying to the point that she looked like she'd start glowing any moment. Tony noticed that his fiancé looked very worried, "Stop worrying; I'll be with her the WHOLE time."

He got her onto the platform and into her suit, showing her how to operate the flying controls and letting her get off the ground before saying, "Okay, just hover there for a minute and I'll get my suit on."

No sooner had he turned his back then she shot off down the tunnel that he's used the first time he tested his suit.

"I said wait!" He yelled, knowing fully well that she was already out of the tunnel by that point.

"See, that's what I was worried about," Pepper told him, pointing after the teenager.

Tony just glared at her as he ran and jumped onto the platform to get into his suit. He flew after his daughter at break neck speeds, not wanting her to get into any trouble. It took a few minutes but he finally spotted her, about five hundred yards out to sea, hovering just two feet above the water, "So you do know the meaning of the word hover! Did you just learn how to actually do it?"

"No but I did learn how to do this," she pointed her leg stabilizers at the right angle and suddenly Tony was being shot with salt water.

He wiped the water from his face and said, "So that's how you want to play it?"

Once her father's face plate dropped Tori knew she was in trouble. She dropped her own and took off back toward the house, which just happened to have a certain suited stepmother and godfather coming out of the tunnel, having suited up because they were afraid Tori would get stuck or put in a dangerous spot.

"Pepper!" She screamed, hiding behind the woman, "Daddy's trying to get me!"

Iron Man hovered in front of the trio, pointing to the young girl, "Hand her over!"

The three looked at one another and instantly it was three on one. They continued to play for a few hours. A while after the sun came up and Tony flew with Tori to the Avengers HQ and popped into Fury's office.

"What do you want, Tony?" Fury asked, not bothering to look up from his work which he was doing with a massive hangover.

"Ahh, I just didn't want you to be able to say I didn't warn you," Tony quipped, his face mask coming up.

Fury looked at him sharply, "Warn me about what?"

Tony pointed to the window, where Tori was hovering. Once the Shield leader looked at her she gave a quick wave and took off back toward the house.

"No, No, NO!" Fury shouted pointing toward the girl's disappearing suit but looking at Tony, "Absolutely not!"

"You let Pepper and Rhodey have one," Tony said, already walking back toward the window.

"Pepper and Rhodes can be trusted! Her…" he said still emphasizing with another jabbed finger, "She is _you_… just with female plumbing."

"Guess your gonna have to take a leap of faith," Tony said as he hovered outside the window then took off for the house, leaving Fury to cuss him in peace.

By the time he got back to the house Tori was standing on the Platform trying to get the suit off.

"Madame, the more you move the longer this is going to take."

"Oh bite me Jar-Jar; this isn't as easy as Dad makes it look!" she squeaked when Dummy grabbed her whole leg instead of just a part, "Hey! You think Dad's the only one who can send you off to a Community College?"

Dummy immediately let go of her leg.

"Yeah, do that again and instead of defending you like I did when I was little, I'm going to help him back you up!"

"You're not making this any easier, Miss Stark!"

"Yeah well, you're not exactly being a big help either," she snapped, "OW! That's it Jarvis, I'm sending you a virus!"

"You'd have to get out of your suit first, Madame," Jarvis told her.

"Why did Dad give you a smartass upgrade, again?"

Tony finally chuckled, drawing attention to himself, "Want some help?"

"How do you make this look so easy," Tori demanded, still trying to hold still while being hoisted in the air by the robots.

"It's really not that hard," Tony said as he approached.

"Yes, sir," Jarvis commented, "because you were a regular in and out pro your first time!..."

"Mute the hell up, Jarvis!"

Once Tori was out of the suit and happily skipping up to her room, where Jarvis said Hal had already crashed, Tony moved to his own bedroom. Pepper was already asleep so he moved to carefully get out of his undersuit and into a pair of pajama bottoms. It had been agreed that when everyone woke up and was sober the next morning, they would clear out so that everyone could recharge before returning to normal life Monday. Seeing as it was now eight a.m., Tony figured that they would start trailing out between noon and one this afternoon but he still planned to be asleep.

He was about to dose off when Pepper sweetly pointed out, "Just think, starting Monday the wedding rush will begin."

All he could do was groan, looking over at her, "Have you ever heard of a man making his fiancé go sleep on the couch?"

…..

This is probably my favorite chapter and I'm glad that I got to put it up! Thank-You to everyone who reviewed chapter 10!

Here is a link to Tori's favorite song: watch?v=5HpMWpQ8o1U

and to the second song: watch?v=lbKHx6NivzU

I'll also have the links on my profile!

Review!


	12. Chapter 12

The rest of May passed peacefully. The wedding, which was set for the end of July, did have planning start but luckily, or just the fact that he was marrying Pepper Potts, meant that everything was done in planned ahead phases. As a matter of fact a majority of those phases were planned just so Tony wouldn't have to attend if he didn't want to. It was moments like this, while he sat alone in his workshop while the girls went to pick out china patterns and silverware, that he really knew why he was marrying Pepper.

The month hadn't been all calm though. Loki was gradually moving closer to Earth and he had been in several scraps with Green Lantern Teams all over the place but no one had been able to apprehend him. While they did have the Loki Weapon and Tony was sure it would work, he was sort of apprehensive and at the same time just wanted to get it over with, the fight that was brewing between them.

Bruce's online girl had become an electronic member of the team, friending everyone on Skype, but Tony was sure that if they ever tried to track her, she'd shut down completely. Steve and Clint had quickly gotten over their crushes, it was rumored that Hal had something to do with that but Tony didn't know for sure. Clint was finally getting off his ass and had realized what a great girl Natasha was; Tony remembered a time when he'd realized the same thing about Pepper. Rogers was dating a girl he met at some sort of World War II Memorial he'd spoken at. Apparently he'd been friends with the girl's father but other than that they were just a cute, normal couple.

It was just his luck that the doorbell rang, interrupting his reprieve as he thought about everything that had been happening recently. He quickly checked the screen and saw that it was Hal, "Send him down here, Jarvis."

"Yes, sir."

The boy had pretty much started living at the house when he was on Earth, which wasn't that often. Tony got the feeling that Hal hadn't known about and still didn't know about what Consetta had done to Tori when she was little. He'd asked his daughter about it and she'd very seriously threatened to kill him if he ever told his fellow superhero. After that conversation he'd done the math and Tori said that she put an end to the abuse when she got some muscle on her at fourteen; if the couple's three year anniversary was in a couple of days then she'd have met Hal the Summer after she turned fifteen. The Green Lanterns age was another thing that was irking Tony about the couple but it wasn't the sole thing... He just had a bad feeling all the way around.

"Hey Jordan," Tony said, "Tori's not here."

"I know, they're looking at what… silverware?"

"Hell if I know; all I cared about was not having to go."

Tony quickly glanced over his shoulder at Hal, from his spot in front of his workbench, "Tori told me that you had to be on patrol today."

"Yeah," Hal said, moving to stand beside the man, "That's what I told her; I needed to talk to you."

Every muscle in Tony's body began to tense, he'd heard that tone before but it was always in movies or other people. Slowly he turned to face the Air Force pilot, arms crossed over his chest as he just started at Hal for a few minutes, and the boy knew better than to even breathe the wrong way.

"What did you want to talk about?" Tony asked him.

Hal swallowed the very large lump in his throat and reached into his pocket, praying to every god he'd ever heard of, that his hands didn't start shaking. He had been dating Tori for three years and it was time to take it to the next level or he'd feel like he'd wasted three years. He pulled out the Tiffany's box and opened the lid, setting the ring down on Tony's work bench, "I want your blessing to ask Tori to marry me."

Neither man dared to breathe for a moment. All Tony could think about was giving away his little girl, his princess, when he'd barely had her back for a month and all Hal could think about was getting this man's approval so that Tori would agree to marry him. Everything seemed to freeze, even the robots, who had been happily working were still, like they realized the severity of the situation.

After only God knew how long Tony chuckled, "And you thought a good time to ask was when I was in my workshop with all of my toys?"

Hal let out a forced a petrified laugh, "Umm, yeah… I've been kicking myself for that decision for the last few minutes."

Tony quickly got serious, "You realize that if you hurt her, you will have a _very _pissed off superhero team out to kick your ass."

"Yours or mine; let's face it my team would throw me under the bus for Tori any day."

"Good, save me the hassle if you try to go inter-galaxy," he studied Hal for another moment before sighing, "You can ask."

That afternoon Tony was lying in bed when the girls got home. Pepper had looked for him everywhere when he wasn't in the workshop but the last thing she suspected to find was him just staring at their bedroom ceiling.

"What's wrong? Are you sick?" she questioned, moving to feel his forehead.

"In what capacity?" he asked, moving her hand from his head.

"What's wrong?" she repeated, sitting down next to him.

Tony quickly sat up, much to her surprise, and moved to shut and lock the door. Once he was seated next to her again, his answer was a whisper, "Hal came by today."

"He's been staying here whenever he's around," Pepper said confused.

"No, he came to see _me_," Tony said and watched as a light dawned in Pepper's eyes, "Yep, he's going to ask her to marry him when he takes her on a spacewalk for their anniversary."

"Oh My God!" Pepper said, practically hyperventilating

"I know."

"Oh My God!"

"See why I had to come lay down."

"What did you say?"

"What could I say… They've been together for three years, with Consetta around for two years and eleven months of that time. I mean he's never given me a reason to think he shouldn't be allowed to marry her."

"But?"

Tony sighed, this woman knew him too well. "But I just got her back. What if he whisks her off and another thing, he's been staying here but how much time has he actually been around…?"

Pepper hugged him, "If it makes you feel any better, I'm 99.9999999% sure that she'll wait until after our wedding; at least and that's if she even says yes!"

"So no running off to Vegas?"

"I can't swear by it but I don't think so."

"I guess I'll have to deal with it… He came down to my workshop to ask."

Pepper stared at him, "You're joking right?"

Tony shook his head, "Came in and stood not even a foot away from me or my workbench and asked."

"Talk about being a crazy fool!"

"I just have a bad feeling."

….

Review! Let me know what your thinking and feeling!

Check out the poll on my profile so I know whose team your on going forward with this story!


	13. Chapter 13

The next week Tori went down to the workshop. She had asked four more times to use the holographic projector since her birthday but every time something had come up; today she wasn't taking no for an answer. Entering her code she spotted Tony under a hot rod in the corner.

"Dad, can I use your holographic projector?"

"Of course, princess," Tony said as he slid out from under the car, "Why didn't you just use the one upstairs?"

Tori slowly, _slowly_, turned to look at him, her eyes becoming glazed, "You have _two _of them?"

"Yeah, there's another one in the office right down the hall from your room; Pepper's got a key to it," Tony said, oblivious to how much danger he was actually in. He turned to look at her and froze when he saw the glare he was receiving, "What?"

The teen sighed, "Nothing, not a thing. Can I load my research on your computer?"

"Sure," Tony said, still unsure of what he'd done.

As Tori woke up the computer and plugged in her flashdrive she saw some of Tony's research was already pulled up. She looked at it for a moment, "Hey, is this the write up of Starkadium?"

"Yeah," Tony confirmed as he went back to working on his hot rod, "Pepper's been on me to get it submitted for a while so I sent it in is morning."

She read it for a few minutes, a look of realization starting to dawn on her face, "Holy Fuck!"

"What?" Tony asked as he pushed away from the car, "You okay?"

"This is it," Tori said as she started to pull up her work and load it into the projector.

By then her father had come up behind her and started pointing to one of the holograms, "Is that cancer?"

"Jarvis, load Starkadium, please!" Tori ordered the A.I., ignoring Tony's 9/10ths rhetorical question. He watched as she put Starkadium into her second hologram, which looked suspiciously like a white blood cell with something else attached to it. It was the attachment that she loaded the element into and then took a step back, "Run it!"

Tony watched amazed as the cancerous cells, which were color coded black started to disintegrate and leave normal red cells in their place.

"The contaminated cells have returned to a normal state and while there still need to be more tests, it would appear, Miss Stark that this was a success."

"Did you just create a cure for cancer?" Tony asked her, breathless.

Tori nodded, afraid to even breathe, but her father wasn't as reserved. Suddenly he was picking her up and almost crushing her in his arms. This spurred her out of shock and she quickly began to hug him back, happily bouncing up and down as he finally let her go.

"What did I miss?" Pepper asked, coming in with a bunch of papers for Tony to sign.

"The little princess found a cure for cancer!" Tony announced.

Pepper quickly grabbed the girl and hugged her, amazed by what she'd heard, "That's amazing; I'm so proud of you!"

Tony had Jarvis run the tests but as he read through all of Tori's work he knew that it was going to work. An hour after the discovery Pepper was already running the information through the company and announcing the medicine as a 'breakthrough' to the public, until the tests were complete. While he was excited about this being good for the company, Tony was happier that it had been his daughter to figure it out and quickly pulled her close, "You know that you'll always be my little girl, right?"

"Always, Daddy," Tori told him.

"Let's go fly around," he said, "Jarvis, alert us if anything happens or comes up with the cure."

"Yes sir, but I see no problems on the horizon."

"Me either," Tony conceded.

"Hey Jarvis, will you let me know when it's 4:30, I have to be ready for Hal to take me out at 7:00."

"Of course, madam."

They spent the afternoon flying around in their suits. Tony knew that he must have told Tori he loved her a hundred time and was sure she thought it stemmed from him being proud of her creation. While he was definitely a proud papa, wishing he had a sign that connected him and Tori saying 'My daughter; MINE!' it wasn't just because of the cure. He wanted her to be happy but he wasn't ready to be cut from her life either. He still didn't know that much about Tori and Hal's relationship in Italy and he hadn't known the kid all that long.

When they finally landed Tori quickly let the robots take off her suit and then hopped into the small changing room. By then the cure had been confirmed and announced, Pepper was preparing a statement for the media, and she had a date to get ready for. Tony sat down beside his fiancé on the sofa, "How are you doing?"

"Not good," he admitted, "It's the best day of her life and I feel like I'm two seconds from falling apart. I don't want to lose her again."

Pepper sighed and looked at him; this was going to be hard for her to put delicately, "Tony, I'm going to say this as gently as I can. You and I both know that you are going to have _a lot _more access to her if she's married to Hal, than you would if she was with her mother."

He flinched and while she felt bad she knew that she needed to continue, "I don't think this engagement is going to change things all that much, at least not anytime soon. Hal's got the Loki threat and the Corps and Air Force and Tori's got this cure and M.I.T…. I'm telling you that she will always be your baby and I don't think this is going to happen as fast as you think it is… That's if it changes anything at all."

"Do you not think she'll say yes?"

"... I… I don't know for sure. Tori is a lot like you and I know how much you like having me around as much as possible… I'm just not sure how she'll react to a marriage with Hal… He's gone at least 75% of the time and I can't see her looking back on her life and saying that she was alone for three fourths of it."

Tony stared at her in wonder, "It's moment like this that I remember why I'm marrying you."

….

Later that night Hal dropped in to pick Tori up and generously took the head slap that Tony dealt him, figuring that he should be grateful the man wasn't chasing him around in his Iron Man suit. This wasn't their first Spacewalk but it was the first time he'd taken Tori out of the galaxy and to the Omrodin people's love fest. The ring was held securely in his pocket and he was trying very hard not to make a fool of himself in front of the woman he been with for so long.

The ring had band of white gold, with a .5 carat diamond encircled by a double row of bead-set diamonds.

Her dress was a simple sun dress that was solid red, as the festival dictated. His team mate had assured him that Lanterns weren't expected to wear red but had encouraged him to have Tori do so. They landed safely in the festival after a light speed ride that never ceased to leave his girlfriend breathless, no matter how many she went on spacewalks with him. Luckily this planet had the same oxygen in the air as earth, so she didn't need to stay with him the whole time like she had in the past.

While she was playing a side game at the carnival like, but planet wide, celebration, Hal prepared himself to take the next step in their relationship.

"Hey let's go for a walk."

"Okay!" Tori said. As they began to move through the crowd, "This has been the best day ever!"

"I'm glad," Hal said as he steered them toward the planet's most famous place to propose to someone. His team mate had assured him that it was like Earth's Verona, Italy, which the pilot figure would be more romantic if Tori hadn't grown up in Italy.

Once they reached the spot he turned to her, "I know that you've done so much today and I want you to know how proud I am of you. I know that you've been through a lot this last month but no one else could have handled it as wonderfully as you have. And we've been through a lot in the last three years and I want you to know that I'm here for you…"

Tori gasped as he went down on one knee and pulled out the ring, "Tori Stark, will you marry me?"

…..

Yeah, that's right, I did it!... Review? I won't upload another chapter until I get some feedback!


	14. Chapter 14

"Yes!" She said breathless, "Yes, I'll marry you!"

Hal quickly placed the ring on her finger and pulled her close to him. He picked her up and spun her around but stopped when he heard clapping. Both were shocked to find the entire courtyard had stopped and watched the proposal, "I guess Gryon wasn't joking about this being the planet's favorite place to propose."

Tori laughed, "Oh my god, it's almost midnight on earth."

He looked at her worried, "What time did your dad want us back by?"

The answer was clear from the look in her eyes and he quickly grabbed them, pushing his ring as fast as he could to get her back home before Tony sent the Corps out after his ass. Pepper had decided to throw a party for them tonight, she said because she was confident that Tori would say yes, and the father of the bride had been confident that if they were even one minute late he could have Hal castrated from galaxies away.

They landed on the balcony at 11:59 and Hal actually watched at the clock changed from one minute to the next. While he watched the clock Tori was watching the lights come on and everyone she cared about yell "Congratulations!"

Tony stepped forward first hugged his daughter, "I'm so happy for you, princess, I want nothing but for you to be happy!"

"Thank-you, Daddy," Tori said simply. They both knew that she didn't just mean for his approval, or protection, or the last month, but for everything.

He quickly passed her over to Pepper and looked at _his future son in law_, "Cutting it sort of close aren't you?"

"Yeah I know, I lost track of time, but my balls tapped me on the shoulder in warning."

"Well you're lucky, I had to promise Pepper that I wouldn't threaten you to within an inch of your life anymore, so come on in and enjoy the party."

All the women fawned over Tori and her ring, asking her questions and not stopping until they got an answer. Tony only hung around long enough to hear the answer to his most pressing question before moving to help his daughter escape to her friends.

"So, Tori, Hal, when are you two thinking of getting married?" Betty asked about an hour after they arrived.

"That's completely up to her, I'm just happy to be the groom in the equation," Hal quipped earning a laugh from the women and grumbles from most of the men who thought he must have called in a favor from God!

Tori giggled, "Actually it'll be a pretty long engagement; I want to graduate M.I.T. before I start planning a wedding."

Pepper saw Tony pump his fist happily, though he had the decency to keep it low and out of sight of Tori or their guests. With the assurance that even with Tori's brains he still had two years for her to get the degree she wanted, he practically skipped over to the couple and helped them get away from the gathered hens. That was more than enough time to ensure that he really did approve of Hal.

Once Tori was settled with her friends and Tony was happily chatting with Bruce and Oliver in a secluded corner, Hal moved onto the balcony to get some air. He just stood there for a moment, looking into the party, watching his future wife. It probably wouldn't be that hard, given enough incentive, to get her to move up the wedding. There was a part of him that had been upset by what the media said, though he'd never mentioned it to anyone; someone like Tori would generally end up with someone like Conner and he would generally end up with someone in the Air Force.

As he stood there watching her, he didn't see the flash of green that grabbed him, until he was already trapped and being pulled to the beach below.

…..

When he landed, or more accurately was thrown, onto the beach it took his eyes a moment to focus on what was going on around him but the growl broke through his sound berrier. As everything became clearer he recognized his team and the Avengers as they stood around him in a large circle, effectively trapping him because even if he went up, the team could stop him.

"Hello," he said carefully, standing up to face them.

"Do you know what being a godfather entails, Hal?"

The boy jumped from surprise and rounded to face Colonel Rhodes as the man pushed off of the building and joined him within the circle.

"I know what I'm hoping it doesn't entail," the boy said honestly.

"See being a godfather," Rhodey continued like he hadn't said anything "means that when you hear your best friend roped into not threating the life out of his future son in law, you step in and do it for him."

"Yeah but see I have this thing called a fiancé to stop you."

Rhodey laughed, "Yes but she'd have to find out about it first, Hal and she's not going to find out about it is she?"

Hal noted that Banner, who was every inch decked out as the ten foot beast he'd only heard about up until that point, took a step forward and growled, "I'm guessing I need to say no."

"See Hal I've been her godfather since she was born but over the course of time I'm not the only one who's become very protective of Tori. Now you have to figure out the answer to a very important question; knowing that all of us are ready to kick your ass up one side and down the others, do you still want to marry my niece?"

Hal squared his shoulders to the man ready to defend his wanting to marry Tori but stopped when the Colonel raised his hand.

"I don't want you to answer now. I want you to go back upstairs and think about it long and hard because if you are doing this for the wrong reasons, we're going to have another of these conversations and we won't be as friendly."

He tried to look at his team for support but found that they were just as intent in this as Rhodes and the Avengers. Hal stood shocked as all of them moved to go back into the party through Tony's workshop.

"Hal?" Tori called from above him.

Jarred but still of autopilot he used his ring to float up to the deck and looked down at his fiancé.

"Hey, I thought you'd gotten spooked and run off already," She said, hugging him.

"No, I… I was just thinking about how lucky I am…," he told her.

"Ahh, well you better come inside because Dad wants to do a toast for you and I before he sends everyone out for the night."

As she scooted inside he couldn't help but mutter, "…even if my in-laws are fucking terrifying!"

Once Hal had come back in Tony stood up, "Alright everyone I'll keep this short but Pepper needs something to blackmail Tori with so she'll give a speech at our wedding in a few months… Princess, I love you to pieces, you are the light of my life, and I want nothing more than for you to be happy. I prayed when you were little that you'd find someone who'd keep you just as safe as I would."

"Hal, I think by now you know what's going to happen if you screw this up, so I don't think it needs to be rehashed… Congratulations and I love you, Princess."

…..

Parley! Oh wait, wrong fandom... Please don't kill me! I beg of you!

This isn't the end of the romance drama, so you Team Spiders still have a chance... maybe!

Keep voting at the polls, PMing me, and Reviewing so I know how you're feeling about the story and Hal vs Peter!


	15. Chapter 15

By the time July rolled around Tony was sure that Loki was just screwing with them. He'd popped up closer to Earth then he'd jump back two galaxies, jump forward one, go back two more, jump three. It was driving the entire team nuts, the anticipations was killing them and knowing that there was nothing they could do except for bide their time. Tony knew that, the Lanterns would detain him, or the team would have to use the weapon when he finally came after them but he wasn't really any better than his friends, in fact he was the worst, because of the waiting game.

Tori was happily earning her own title as a legendary Stark prodigy. She'd done several television, radio, and college interviews and speeches. Hal had brought up them getting their own place but Tony had suggested that they just live in his loft in Boston, since it was right off the M.I.T. campus and Hal was gone so much anyways. Since he and Pepper were going to be in his house in Boston it would be nice for her to be able to come and stay there on weekends when he wasn't even in the same galaxy.

While Pepper knew that she couldn't do anything, she had been using the wedding to keep her mind off things. She had gotten everything in place except for what everyone told her was the most important part; the dresses. She had put it off and put it off, wanting to give enough time for everything to settle but by July 14th, with her wedding on the 28th, the company had gotten tired of waiting and demanded that she bring herself and her three bride's maids in.

"Hey, Tori?" Pepper started as she drove them toward the dress shop.

"Yeah," the girl said, looking up from her phone.

"I want you to be my maid of honor."

"…Really; I thought Jane was…"

"No, why did you think that?" Pepper asked.

"I don't know I just thought that she was… I'd love to be your maid of honor!"

"Really?"

"Yeah, of course!"

"Wow that was easier than I thought it would be."

Tori laughed and went back to working on her phone. Pepper had been watching closely the last few months and she knew that something was going on with the team's new online partner. Tony had given her all the reasons that it couldn't be Tori but, though she hadn't called him on it, Pepper had a feeling he was trying to desperately to convince himself for it not to be true. Bruce had finally accepted that it wasn't Tori, so had the rest of the team, but Pepper just wasn't so sure. While all her fiancé's reasons seemed logical, Pepper got the same feeling about this she had with Obidiah, without the thinking that Tori planned to try to hurt anyone.

"I want to ask you something else and I want you to be honest with me."

"What?"

"…Tori, I'm going to promise you something and do my damnedest to keep it. As long as you're honest with me, I'll never tell another person your answer as long as I live."

"What is it?" Tori asked, worried that something was wrong with Pepper or her Dad.

"Are you PrincessAtom?"

She froze. Her dad had never actually asked her that, nor had anyone else. Tori couldn't say she would have told them the truth if they'd asked but right now, she wasn't sure she could lie to Pepper either.

"I am."

They drove for a while in silence after that. It went for so long that Tori wasn't sure if Pepper had heard her or not but she knew that she needed to make herself clear.

"I don't expect you to take it to your grave, Pepper."

"I told you I would."

"But that's not what I want. If you're in trouble, if Dad or the team's in trouble, or if they need me for something and I'm not online… I trust you to use your judgment but if it's time for it to come out, tell it and I _will not _be angry at you," they pulled into a spot and Tori took a deep breath, "I'm scared. I know what happened with Dad, and Stane, and the Jericho. If someone were to find out… I just know that now is not the time to bring it out but I couldn't live with myself if you or dad got hurt because of my secret."

Pepper let out a bitter chuckle, "If I wasn't going to keep your secret before, I am now. I remember when your dad was kidnapped; I was a wreck. I can't imagine if it had been you."

"Not if it needs to come out," Tori maintained, "I don't want to hide it when I could save someone."

After that they seemed to return to normal. Betty and Jane met them at the shop, having driven together from the University. The hostess was friendly enough, of course being Tony Stark's fiancé and daughter tended to have that tendency. They had all taken the afternoon off and spent it hacking through dress after dress.

They worked on the Bride's Maid's dresses first. It took a while but finally they found the perfect lavender colored, knee length satin dress with a Queen Anne neckline and white sandals. Tori's dress stood out a little more because of the accented neckline, which had whit pearls lining it. All of the girls looked amazing in them and she was glad that they all seemed happy as they shoved her into a dressing room to begin the real challenge.

She'd never given much thought to her dream wedding dress, just praying that when she got married she wouldn't fall on her face or look hideous. All ball gowns were quickly vetoed since they were going to be on the beach, as were all the dresses knee length or shorter, since she just couldn't picture walking down the aisle in either.

They hacked through several but nothing seemed to shout at Pepper. Jane said that she was holding it up to some standard, since she'd looked amazing in all of them, but the bride to be honestly didn't know what she was comparing it to. Tori seemed to have an idea and went to speak to their designated helper when her stepmother went to try on another hopeless gown. Neither of the girls knew what the teen was up to when she and the other girl disappeared but they hope that she had some inside information because they were getting nowhere.

"I'm never going to find the dress!" Pepper said almost ready to give up.

"I wouldn't say that quite yet," Tori said coming back with dress thrown over her arm.

"What is that one?"

"It's a surprise, come on and I'll help you get it on!"

Betty and Jane sat outside the room, holding their breath in the worst sort of way. Every dress something was missing according to the bride but she could never put her finger on it! Both girls had been debating if they should tell the bride that it just wasn't meant to happen that day or perhaps in that store, and they should try somewhere else.

"It's perfect!" They heard Pepper announce.

When she stepped out of the dressing room they knew, as she turned to give them a full view, that it was indeed the perfect dress. Though it made Pepper look amazing, and practically glow, they had no idea how Tori had known what she wanted.

"Well see, one day, right after my birthday, I was down in Dad's workshop…"

….

_Flashback_

"_Hey Dad, can I borrow your holographic projector?" Tori looked around but she didn't see him, "Dad?"_

"_Over here, Tori!" Tony called from his workbench, which was blocked off by a large curtain._

"_What are you doing?"_

"_Well earlier, I was doing some explosive work so I curtained off the cars and my bench," he explained, picking up a big piece of glass and placing it over his workspace, "Now I'm just improving the look of the bench."_

_Tori wandered over and looked at the bench. It took her a moment to realize that under the glass were pictures of her from when she was little, of him and Pepper, and Parker's pictures of her birthday and the Gates Gala. She studied all the pictures then pointed to one in particular, "Where was that one?"_

_Tony laughed, "Oh that was the first time Pepper and I ever danced… God I loved that dress. Anyway, your Uncle Rhodey took the picture on his phone, sent it to me with some smartass message about 'finally', but I still had the photo remastered."_

"_I like that dress too, Pepper pulls off that backless look nicely."_

_He opened his mouth to comment on what other look she pulled off nicely but then stopped himself, "Nevermind."_

"_I get the feeling I should be saying thank-you."_

"_You should, now I have to go meet with the team," He said, jogging out of the shop so he'd be on time; Fury was threatening to castrate anyone who showed up late again._

"_Wait, you didn't answer my…" but the door was already closed._

…

Next Chapter is the WEDDING! Oh my god, I know what's going to happen and I'm still anxious and excited.

Review so I can get it uploaded!


	16. Chapter 16

The day of the wedding Pepper had already decided that there were no rules about talking to the groom on the phone the day of the wedding and if there were she didn't care. She rolled over and called him, making sure he knew that his daughter was NEVER throwing her another party… at least as long as they were married and when he asked what she meant, she replied that if the girl was willing to bring some of those young hot studs to her divorce party, she'd learn to live with it.

That is how Tony wound up banging on the door to his own house, which he'd been kicked out of by three very threatening bridesmaids, the night before. He wasn't really surprised that Jarvis sided with the girls and restricted his access to the house after the wedding dress incident.

…..

_Flashback_

"_So, when do I get to see your dress?" Tony asked as they sat around the dinner table._

"_Not until the day of the wedding," Pepper told him._

_He scoffed, "You don't really believe any of that superstitious crap do you?"_

"_I believe in taking every precaution; isn't that what you said about Natasha reading those directions PrincessAtom sent you."_

"_Well yeah, but that was involving something that had already blown up in our face five times!"_

"_Tony, I don't want our marriage to blow up in our face once."_

_Tori suddenly busted out laughing earning a curious look from both people but she waved them off, "Sorry, I just pictured an atom bomb with your pictures on it and when it popped up it had 'Hell Hath No Fury' instead of a mushroom cloud. Crazy teenager stuff; continue."_

_Tony, who was sitting beside of her, reached over to slap the back of her head before starting again, "It's really pointless; if I decide I want to see it I'm going to find it."_

"_First of all," Tori said, "What did I tell you about spending too much time with Ollie; just look what those headslaps did to Conner! Second of all, you have to get past me, Fury, and Uncle Rhodey to get to that dress!"_

"_Why would Fury and Rhodey care about the dress?" Tony demanded from both of them._

"_They didn't really," Pepper explained, "but Tori convinced them that it would be fun to keep something from you."_

_It wasn't until later that night, once everyone had gone to sleep that Tony decided to stick it to all of them by getting to that dress. It was in a teenagers closet, she was fast asleep by now, so how hard could it really be to get to?_

_He snuck down the hall and to Tori's room._

"_This isn't a good idea, sir," Jarvis sounded in warning._

"_Jarvis, I invented you, you do as I say," Tony told him, "and right now you're going to help me get to that dress."_

"_I don't see how I can do that, sir."_

"_Tell me what I'm up against here." Tony said, hesitating before turning the knob._

"_I don't know sir, whatever system Miss Stark put in place she circumvented my systems," Jarvis said._

"_If that's the case then there are no systems," Tony said, "because you can't be circumvented."_

_He quickly opened the door a few inches but before he could continue it sprang open the rest of the way and the whole room when up in red flashes._

"_INTRUDER ALERT; INTRUDER ALERT; INTRUDER ALERT; INTRUDER ALERT!" A system shouted above him and suddenly several weapons began to raise from the floor and point at him; damn Fury and Rhodey._

"_I dare you to cross that threshold," Tori said from the bed._

_Tony pointed at her, "You win round one."_

…

Of course she had also won every round after that and his own A.I. system had decided to align himself with the greater of two evils. The girl was a lot more devious then he originally gave her credit for and he had no one but himself to blame for that; the apple didn't fall far from the tree apparently.

"What, Dad?" Tori demanded as she opened the door a little bit.

"What kind of crazy bachelorette party did you throw Pepper?"

Tori laughed, "Based on the glitter on your jacket and shirt, I could ask you the same thing. Do you _really _want to go there?"

Tony sighed, it hadn't even been his idea but he knew when it was better to just drop something, "Please just tell me the 'young hot studs' weren't in my house."

"Of course not!" Tori said, "They were in the front yard."

"Does Hal know about them?"

"Was he at your bachelor party?"

Tony opened and closed his mouth several times then took a step back, "I'm going to go to the hotel and get ready; no more wild parties at the house."

"Aye-aye, Tin man."

The wedding was set to begin at five, leading Pepper to almost have a nervous breakdown by three. For some reason the woman was convinced that Loki was going to attack that day just to spite her and people were going to end up hurt.

"Would you rather Dad wear the suit down the aisle?"

The glare Pepper set on her was enough to make most people flinch but Tori just grinned as Betty and Jane slipped half a Xanax into the bride's drink. They quickly passed her the ginger ale and within thirty minutes she had calmed considerably. They quickly moved to put her into the dress and get her ready for the walk down to the beach.

By the time the music started the groomsmen were wishing they'd been smart enough to pack Xanax to slip into Tony's crown… if it wasn't to be taken with alcohol, oopsy fucking daisy! The man had been convinced the entire ride from the hotel that Pepper was going to leave him at the altar. Rhodey had threatened to sic Fury on him twice just to get him to shut up.

As soon as the brides maids started walking down, he felt some of his confidence return. Tori winked at him, a secret in her eyes that he wasn't yet privy to, and that was all he needed to go from worry wart to bold and daring Tony Stark. Pepper's music started and he debated once more if she was going to come down the aisle but quickly shook the thoughts away as she appeared.

It struck him, the moment she started heading toward him. It was white, with a slightly longer train, but at the end of the day it was almost an exact replica of the dress she'd warn the first night they danced. He knew, as much as he knew his own name, even as she walked toward him that when he placed his hand on the small of her back, there would be nothing there. This is where they both wanted to be, that first night and now, they wanted to be together and no one was ever going to take this from them.

"Dearly beloved," the preacher began.

….

By the time they reached the reception Tony was disappointed he hadn't been able to convince Pepper to consummate their marriage on the way over. The woman was worrying about if Tori was going to show up or not, despite the fact that she'd promised she would.

"What if she gets nervous and takes off?" Pepper asked.

"Pepper, where did you even come up with that theory?" Tony demanded, still trying to reach under her dress as he kissed her neck, "She's a Stark and this is a chance to be in the spotlight."

"I don't know… I seem to be worrying about the craziest things today. Well, except for between getting my dress on and saying I do," she kissed him happily.

They pulled up to the beaches reception hall and Pepper pushed him away playfully, getting ready to face the masses as Mrs. Tony Stark. Every camera was flashing as they stepped out of the limo, reporters just daring their picture men to mess up this shot. Pepper smiled and let Tony lead her into the hall, where her friends and family, surrogate though they may be, cheered and hollered congratulations at the couple upon their entrance.

Once everyone was seated, Tori stood up to give her speech.

"When I thought about what I was going to get up here and say it was hard. I have so much that I could draw from for both my Dad and Pepper because they are both such remarkable people. Dad, you've always been my superhero; I've known it since I was small. I put money on you in every battle, I felt safest when I was close to you. I hope that you always know all of my strength, in everything I do, comes for watching you all these years, no matter how far apart we were.

Pepper, you are the closest thing to a mother I've ever really had. I'm not sure when I realized it but I do know that I can trust you with everything I am and in everything I'll ever do it's nice to know that I can look to you for guidance. I wish nothing but the best for both of you and I can't wait to see your happily ever after play out."

After the toast was over everyone started to party like there was no tomorrow. Parker was hard pressed to catch all the good pictures he could, when there seemed to be at least two perfect moments every second.

The NPG had apparently decided to prank the Avengers team in Tony's honor by painting all of their weapons red and gold, though they maintained that no one could prove it was them. So throughout the entire party Odin's Hammer, Natasha's guns, the Captain's shield, Hulk's shorts, and Clint's bow hung in all their glory above the groom's cake.

Rhodey got drunk enough to hit on one of Pepper's friends from college, which wound up with him sporting a black eye and busted lip. He wasn't the only one with romance problems however because Clinton was almost dumped when Natasha caught him staring at a party girl when she danced 'like a whore'. Of course, Steve made them all look like pretentious asses when he charmed and doted on his girl like there was no tomorrow.

"How long until they get engaged?" Tony asked his new wife, pointing to Rogers.

"Sarah's so sweet, I give it a few more months. Let's see if they survive the first near world ending experience."

"Yeah, those tend to put strains on relationships."

"We've made it through how many? Three?"

"What, this week?"

She slapped him lightly, stealing another kiss. Before she could pull away a camera flashed and Tony grabbed Parker by the collar of his jacket, "What did I tell you about the up close flash?"

"Sorry Mr. Stark the moment was just too good to pass up," Peter explained.

"Cut the crap, Spidey," Tony said, "No one is paying any attention to us right now… Did everything work out?"

Peter nodded, scanning the crowd, "Your girl was a lot of help; where did you find her at?"

"I didn't; she's Bruce's girl turned into the team's girl."

"You know who she really is?" Peter probed carefully.

Tony shook his head, "No one does but she does what we need her to do and right now anonymous is how she's safest. Don't go asking her a bunch of questions, she tends to get really defensive and we can't afford to have anyone piss her off."

Pepper decided to go over and talk to the girls. She didn't want to lie to Tony but he was right, Tori was safest this way. If she was an active Shield operative, creator of the AAW weapons, and Iron Man's daughter… right now, all Pepper could see was a dark cave and a lot of pain if it got out who PrincessAtom was.

Around nine that night Pepper and Tony set off for their two week honeymoon in the Caribbean. Nothing but Loki attacking was going to pull them from the beach and according to Fury, the team could handle that too. Hal had to go back to the base with Rhodey so Tori ended up in the house alone and on her computer.

_GreenFallout: HotRodRed got married today._

_PrincessAtom: so I heard on the tv_

_GreenFallout: if I guessed who u were; would u tell me?_

_PrincessAtom: no_

_StarPatriot: I thoughtHotRodRed told you to quit bugging her_

_PrincessAtom: thank u_

_GreenFallout: I just dnt c what the big deal is_

_GreenFallout: we'd protect her/u_

_PrincessAtom: I dnt expect u 2 understand_

_StarPatriot: family then; that's what I used to say when it was my family_

_PrincessAtom: im nt talkin 2 u anymore_

_GreenFallout: 2nite or ever?_

Tori closed off that chat and moved to a separate one.

_PrincessAtom: how did everything work out?_

_PicturePerfectArachnid: gr8, ur treatment worked to completely destroy the black suit_

_PicturePerfectArachnid: I'd hav been in big troube w/out u_

_PicturePerfectArachnid: bt I do hav a question_

_PrincessAtom: shoot_

_PicturePerfectArachnid: why rnt u tellin ur daddy who u r_

_PicturePerfectArachnid: & dnt bother lying b/c I knw u Tori_

_PrincessAtom: how did u knw Parker?_

_PicturePerfectArachnid: come on! U helped me when I first started developing my abilities_

_PicturePerfectArachnid: I recognized ur bedside manner right off_

_PicturePerfectArachnid: we've been friends ever since, even after we dated, ur my BFF_

_PicturePerfectArachnid: u rlly didn't think I'd recognize u under a different name?_

_PicturePerfectArachnid: ur lucky I didn't sell u out b4 I realized Big Daddy didn't knw!_

_PrincessAtom: It's all complicated Petey_

_PicturePerfectArachnid: cliff notes?_

_PrincessAtom: My dad/Afghanistan_

_PicturePerfectArachnid: u hav a good reason… u ever gonna tell him?_

_PrincessAtom: im sure it will come to pass that I need 2 & I will_

_PicturePerfectArachnid: well I understand y ur hesitant_

_PicturePerfectArachnid: congrats on the engagement by the way_

_ PrincessAtom: thanx… its weird being engaged to Hal_

_ PicturePerfectArachnid: yeah, u guys nvr had the most… stable relationship_

_PrincessAtom: I knw we've been through a lot… I dnt knw… its just cold feet, rite?_

_PicturePerfectArachnid: as ur best friend, I dnt knw the answer 2 that_

_PicturePerfectArachnid: only u knw the answer 2 that; u also knw how I feel about Hal_

_PrincessAtom: u dnt like him…_

_PicturePerfectArachnid: I knw how he's done u in the past, so no I dnt_

_PicturePerfectArachnid: does ur daddy knw about that?_

_PrincessAtom: no & he doesn't need to… I said yes so my doubts r my problem_

_PrincessAtom: … this is just btw us rite?_

_PicturePerfectArachnid: sure, I trust u to make the rite call on all accounts, good nite._

….

Review! I took some of the wedding stuff from experience, brides often lose their minds the day of the wedding, my mother was a nut on her wedding day! I promised Team Peter was still alive!


	17. Chapter 17

When Tony and Pepper finally got back from their honeymoon Tori was almost completely packed. The newly weds' things were being brought up from the car and they went to track down the girl who was, according to Jarvis, finishing with the things that were being taken to the plane early.

"I swear on my mother's grave, Hal, if you drop my Iron Man poster I'm going to kill you!" Tori giggled playfully.

"It's just a stupid picture and it's not going up on our apartment, bitch."

Pepper grabbed Tony's arm to keep him from saying something he may or may not regret later. The man took a deep breath before walking into the room, not intending to kill the kid who had just taken that tone with his daughter.

"Tori, what did I tell you about putting a hit out on your mother?" Tony demanded as he walked into her room.

"Daddy, Pepper!" Tori called running over to jump into Tony's arms. The packing was left to fend for itself as they all, Hal included, headed for the living room.

"Alright, catch us up!" Pepper said.

"Well, I've got almost everything packed; we've set the movement for the headquarters of the industry to be temporarily in Boston instead of Malibu, we went to Vegas and got married, and the Avengers voted to move to Boston too!"

The look in Tony's eyes could have sent the Hulk to pieces and Hal quickly turned on his fiancé, "That's not funny; tell him you were joking!"

"About what?" Tori asked innocently, her wide doe eyes ensuring her protection if Tony decided to kill Hal.

"Tori!" Pepper jumped in, not wanting Tony to fire up the suit so soon after what they heard in Tori's bedroom.

The girl quickly held up her hands, "I'm sorry Daddy, I couldn't resist! No Vegas, just packing and filling in for you at the Shield meetings."

Tony moved to get another drink, still glaring at the young man who had started acting strange after his wedding, according to Tori. He had honestly been afraid that his daughter would try to make the situation better by marrying the kid. As a result he grabbed Tori's hand as he walked to the bar, observing it closely for any sign of a wedding band but found none.

They moved on from the subject rather quickly after that, laughing like any normal family. Pepper showed pictures from their honeymoon and told hilarious stories about Tony smart mouthing Fury so bad over the phone that the man threatened to use the Anti-Iron Man weapon if he didn't stop harassing the agency when they were supposed to have two weeks rid of him.

...

Two days later the house was completely vacant and they were on a plane heading for Boston, with one week to settle before Tori started classes. It ended up being just the three of them, much to Tori's disappointment, because Hal had to go on a three week rotation to look for Loki in their galaxy.

_PicturePerfectArachnid: so, how goes the move?_

_PrincessAtom: wat did I tell u about talking 2 me under this name_

_PicturePerfectArachnid: business only; bt I dnt like ur other screen-name_

_PrincessAtom: *facepalm*_

_PrincessAtom: its just a name & u agreed 2 participate in this_

_PicturePerfectArachnid: I said I understood; I still think ur dad would keep ur secret_

_PrincessAtom: r u w/ me or against me?_

_PicturePerfectArachnid: im always w/ u!_

_PicturePerfectArachnid: so the move?_

_PrincessAtom: fine; stuff is set up the house tonite & 2morrow we'll do the apartment_

_PicturePerfectArachnid: u guys movin in 2gether, that's a big step_

_PrincessAtom: yeah… he's just been really weird since the wedding_

_PicturePerfectArachnid: ...example?_

_PrincessAtom: just stuff… I dnt know…_

_PrincessAtom: I dnt want to disappoint my dad if I break the engagement_

_PrincessAtom: & I knw that I could make a marriage work with Hal_

It seemed like no sooner had she sent the message then her phone started ringing. Eyebrows raising at the caller i.d. she moved to answer the phone.

"Hello?"

"_Read that last line back to me!"_

"Peter…"

"_No, I want you to read that last line back to me!"_

"I said, 'I know that I could make a marriage work with Hal'."

"_What is wrong with you?" Peter demanded. "Can I talk to my best friend please!"_

Tori sighed, "Peter…"

"_Listen to me carefully Vittoria Maria Stark, because I'm only going to explain this to you once. Your father would do anything to make you happy; the only way you are going to disappoint him is by marrying someone you aren't in love with. Stark Industries isn't the only legacy that your family has; they also have a legacy in love. Look at your dad and Pepper, look at your grandparents! Starks are notorious for finding and making their own fairytales through good times and bad!"_

Tori was struggling not to cry as Peter sent her picture after picture of both the couples he'd used as examples.

"_And another thing; you have to stop looking at your dad through your mom's lens. I know it's hard but he is not her and he would never hurt you, physically or emotionally the way she did. Tor, you're hurting him by not trusting him support you in whatever you want to do."_

She sighed, tears slipping past her closed eye lids, "I hate it when you're right."

"_I know you do and that's okay but you know I hate it when you cry, and that's not okay," Peter said, "So, what are you thinking?"_

"I just need time," Tori told him, "I don't want to rush to end things and then realize that this was just a rough patch… he'd been pushing me to elope, since Dad and Pepper left for their honeymoon but it was weird because as soon as I joked about it he flipped his lid and turned into a wuss!"

"_Well was your Dad ready to kill when you joked about it?"_

"Should it matter?"

"_It shouldn't if he really wanted you to elope but if he's got stuff going on then maybe he just wasn't prepared for your Dad's death glare!"_

"Thanks for your advice, Petey."

"_Anything for you doll; I love you, you know that right?"_

"I love you too, talk to you later."

….

Yeah, so review because I want to upload the next chapter SOOOOOOO bad it hurts! REVIEW!


	18. Chapter 18

By late September Tori was all but positive that Hal was cheating on her. Their sex life had been all but nonexistent since the move to Boston and when she tried to broach the subject with him, he snapped at her saying that he was tired from all the work he'd been doing with the Lanterns and Loki.

Though she'd thought about taking her suspicions to Pepper it was too much to ask. The woman was already keeping one secret to many from her husband and Tori didn't even want to imagine what her dad would do if he found out about what she thought the problem might be. So in true Stark fashion she hacked his phone records and text messages, discovering that he'd been having an affair with an Air Force secretary for at least, _at least_, two months and probably since they got engaged.

She was pissed.

Telling no one what she'd found, she waited until he was supposed to be home from a mission, and then went back to the apartment an hour early, skipping her last class to do so. She could honestly say that she was still shocked by what she found. Though Tori was sure he was cheating, she never expected him to bring it back to the place they lived together, but based on the noises coming from _their bedroom _that was exactly what he'd done.

Fuming she went to the door and slammed it open, scaring both the occupants and proving that they had been doing exactly what she'd feared.

"You rat mother fucker!" she shouted.

"Tori, wait I can explain."

"Get the fuck out!" she hissed, "both of you… oh wait, I recognize you!"

The blonde got wide eyes.

"You slept with my father to get an article on him… nice to know that your stories follow a pattern, I'll be sure to let your editor know about it."

"Tori, please give me a chance…"

The slap that echoed through the whole apartment and the tears in her eyes didn't seem like all that much of a contradiction at that moment, "Get out! You can come tomorrow and get your things but you _will leave _and you _will give me your key _right now!"

The blonde had already scrambled out by that point, probably hoping to save her job by getting to her editor before Tori, like that would stop the Stark from making her life hell. Hal took one look in her eyes and knew that the longer he stayed around the apartment the more danger he was putting himself in. He moved to grab his clothes and left his key on the kitchen table, where the young doctor had moved to sit. "I hope that we can work this out."

Once he was gone Tori pulled out her phone.

"_Hello?"_

"Tell me again!"

"_What?"_

"What you told me after Hal broke up with me once he became a Green Lantern and wanted to run around with that skank. What you said when we went to the Carnival, in Verona, Italy. Tell me again."

"_What's faded is lost, when you need me I'm there,_

_Giving up on love now is like giving up air._

_True love isn't a game of Russian roulette_

_So move on from this, no pain no regret."_

"I'll talk you later, I have a few calls to make," Tori quickly closed the phone and then opened it again, pressing two on her speed dial.

"_Hello?"_

"I really need to come over," Tori said with tears in her voice.

"_What's going on?"_

"Hal's a cheating bastard!"

"_I'm sending Hogan to come and get you; I'm guessing we aren't telling your father about this?"_

"Not until I get there."

By the time Tori got to the house Tony knew that something was going on. Pepper wouldn't say anything but he knew that he wasn't going to like it and already had his mouse hovering over the tiny skype send button, ready to alert the team if this was even slightly terrible news. His first thought was that Tori was pregnant and when she walked in he was mentally preparing for it, but the way she fell into Pepper's arms sobbing didn't seem like the right reaction. Sure she might have been nervous to tell them but not in those sort of hysterics.

He quickly moved to pull her away from Pepper and into his arms, "Hey, breathe… I can't fix it if you don't breathe."

"You can't fix this!" she sobbed into his chest.

"I highly doubt that," Tony said, rubbing her back while Pepper held her hand.

"No you can't," Tori maintained, "Hal's been cheating on me since before or right after we got engaged and not only that but I caught them in our apartment, in our bed!"

"Oh hunny," Tony's voice, Pepper knew, was deceptively calm in comparison with the rage in his eyes, "If only you knew; I can fix that in one little click of a mouse."

Luckily Tori was hysterical and didn't ask what he was talking about as Pepper ushered her into the kitchen to get ice cream and then to get chick flicks. She was, as a result, oblivious to the conversation currently taking place on skype.

_HotRodRed: Everyone 2 my place now!_

_StarPatriot: I'm on my way but what's going on?_

_NorseWarrior: i'll send thor, he's supposed to be sheid bt I'll make a call_

_NorseWarrior: girlfriends invited 2?_

_OneLineSoldier: b there in 5_

_GreenFallout: that doesn't sound good_

_RobinHoodHero: give us 5_

_LadyArachnid: *headslap* we r on the way_

_HotRodRed: I'll explain when u get here; we've got a personal mission of sorts_

_HotRodRed: & the more the merrier_

When the team started to pile in Tony knew that they'd be pissed at what Hal did but he wasn't expecting them to take it as personally as they did. Hell, Banner almost went to the big guy when Tori told them about the calls and texts, not even what she'd found in her apartment. He was also surprised that Natasha was just as comforting as Pepper, though a bit more rough around the edges when it came time for revenge planning. Betty and Jane had both come with their boyfriends and by the time Tori was done with the story they were threatening more bodily harm them both the Norse God and the Hulk.

"That boy's going to have a very serious accident," Rhodey shouted.

"Hell yeah," Clint said, "What kind of revenge plot are we talking about here? Because he can just disappear; one word and he's just gone!"

"No, that's too obvious," Tony said, "I was thinking he gets hit by lightning next time he goes up for training."

"And that's not obvious?" Bruce demanded, "What about getting his Lanterns to help; they like Tori better anyway."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa" Tori said, "Guys I don't want you to hurt him… I just don't want to ever see his sorry ass again!"

Tony scoffed, "Don't think of it as us hurting him, think of it as insurance that you won't ever have to see him again."

"Daddy!" Tori said, "… I really don't want to be there when he comes to get his things."

"When is he supposed to come?" Rhodey asked but Thor interrupted.

"I do not understand this! When a man leaves a home he gives up all rights to any possessions!"

Tori sighed, laying her head on Tony's shoulder, "I wish that were how it worked."

"Don't fret, Little Stark," Thor said, "He will not get away with this treachery."

"Jane, does he have any young Asguardians up for a rebound?"

"No, but I'm sure Conner will apply for the job."

"Uhh, no. Kid's like my brother. Oh God, Conner, Cass, and Jason are going to be pissed!"

…

The team ended up sleeping in Tori's apartment and spending most of the day there, waiting for Hal to show up. All of the girls, including Tasha, had decided to stay at the house, eat ice cream, talk smack, and whatever else girls did after a bad break up… to be honest it was information that Tony was glad he didn't have.

Thor was still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that Midguardians allowed treacherous men, such as Hal, to retrieve their things after they hurt fair maidens such as Tori. Bruce was working on some sort of Virus that included flesh eating but Tony wasn't sure that the big guy wouldn't be a faster, more accessible solution. He, Clint, and Steve were all debating how best to intimidate Hal and not kill him because Fury's exact words had been 'if he dies, I'm kicking all your asses' though he had been very supportive of Tori getting revenge.

Tony's blood was still boiling when there was a knock at the door. He was kicking himself for not grilling the hell out of Hal the second he found out the Green Lantern was dating his daughter. Thor and Steve moved to follow him as he headed for the door, jerking it open and letting all his rage lay open on his face.

Hal started before trying to plead his case, "Tony, I…"

"Don't even start!" Tony growled, "Get your shit and get out. If you ever try to contact my daughter again I swear to God almighty, what I will do to you will make Richard Ramirez look like a telly-tubby. You are a real piece of work, Jordan, and I want you nowhere near Tori, ever again."

The boy seemed to weigh whether or not he should try and explain himself but then decided against it and moved to collect his things. When Tony turned around he realized why the kid was so scared. Thor and Clint were both holding their weapons , though not aimed at the boy, ready to be used at any moment should they need them, Bruce was shaking and looked slightly green, and Steve had been right behind him, arms crossed and looking about as ready to kill as Tony was.

The team took turns keeping as eye on the kid as he collected his things, making sure that he didn't touch anything of Tori's or break anything out of spite. Hal knew that he'd screwed this up big time and at this point he figured that there really was nothing he could do about it.

He'd broken up with Tori when he first became a lantern, because there was another girl showing interest, but when that fell through they'd gotten back together. Tori had dated someone during the time, though she never told him who, so they had tried to put that summer behind them. Obviously he had fucked up again and this time, he knew that there would be no take backs… He was actually pretty shocked that Fury had the team reigned in enough to keep them from killing him.

"I am sorry for all of this," he said once he'd stepped over the threshold with his things.

"Your apologies don't mean shit," Tony said, "I never once slept with someone that I didn't want to; no matter how drunk I was I did it of my own volition every damn time. So don't give me any of your shit excuses because I could never do that to Pepper! You should have never done it to my daughter."

"If she'd just stayed the needy abused girl in Italy, maybe she wouldn't have deserved it!"

Tony knew that the kid had a broken nose before his fist even finished making contact. He went to further jump on the kid but Steve and Thor grabbed him, not knowing that they had far larger problems at the moment.

Bruce had Hulked out and proceeded to grab Hal, throwing him around like a rag doll before the lantern could even think of defending himself. Afterwards Tony was grateful that the big guy drug Hal into the apartment instead of leaving Hal shaped holes in the hallway. Finally the big guy seemed to think the boy had learned his lesson and moved to drop him, letting the kid crawl away, relatively uninjured after the attack but obviously hurting and shaken.

The door slammed and Tony saw the team take a collective breath, they were all still angry but they knew deep down that there was nothing they could do, killing him wasn't an option. Hal was a douchebag but he wasn't evil, so they were just going to have to help Tori move on. Of course that didn't mean that Tony wasn't going to make Hal and his little skank's life a living hell for a while longer.

…..

Scandalous! Everyone review!


	19. Chapter 19

By October Tori felt like she'd been avenged very well by pretty much the whole world. It was weird how many people felt some sort of loyalty to her because she'd saved their lives or the lives of someone they cared about; she certainly didn't expect any sort of loyalty from them. With that said her expectations had been surpassed by many people, who wore anti-Hal Jordan tee shirts and many business owners refused to ever serve him in any capacity.

It wasn't just the general public though. Her godfather had kept Hal on back to back air patrol for the Air Force and just like they predicted Hal's team sided with Tori too, giving him absolute hell while they were monitoring the galaxy. By the end of the two weeks following their break up, Tori was calling for everyone that it was time to return to normal, that she was happily moving on and grateful that she didn't saddle herself with the man before he showed his true colors.

It was one weekend, as Tori came into the house after her last class on Thursday, that she noticed that everything was suspiciously quiet. There was no movement or humming coming from the house, which was usually buzzing with at least two or three of the other Avengers, who had all started hanging around Tony's home instead of the new headquarters.

"Hello? Jarvis, where is everybody?"

"Hello, Miss Stark. The team has gone to the new base so that they can discuss remodels with your father who was, and I quote, 'sick and tired of all these damn people running around', and Mrs. Stark is upstairs in their bedroom."

Once Tori could control her giggling she started up the stairs and toward Pepper. She and her stepmother were supposed to do an interview with a teen magazine the next day so they needed to go over what they were going to wear, not that Tori really gave a damn about what she wore to some stupid interview… Okay, maybe it was time to admit that she was spending too much time around her dad.

"Hey, Pep?" Tori said, knocking on the door as she stepped over the threshold. To her surprise she spotted the woman standing next to the bed, staring at it with an expression that confused the teen. The blonde sauntered up to the red head and couldn't stop the blinding smile that lit up her features, "Really, Pepper, you're supposed to be the most rational woman I know yet it takes you fifteen tests to realize that you're pregnant?"

"They can't be right!" Pepper maintained.

"Sorry Pepper but according to some of the things Tasha has heard around here, you can't really believe that!"

The red head started turning red all over at the comment, "I just mean… I expected it to take longer."

"Are you happy?" Tori asked, sinking down beside the woman on the bed, taking her hand.

"Of course!" Pepper said, seeming to come out of her shock, "I'm ecstatic… how am I going to tell your dad?"

The teen quickly threw her arm around her stepmother's shoulder, "Oh, I think we can come up with something!"

…

When Tony pulled into the garage he was tired. He'd given the team a budget and told them that they could do whatever they wanted to the place as long as they went out and did something during the day. While he wasn't opposed to the way things had changed in the last few months, the man clearly remembered a time when there were only, two, maybe three people in his lab at a time when he was trying to do something. Having the team live with him was great but having them in his workspace, it was becoming too much.

Of course that didn't include Tori or Bruce. Those two, his fellow geniuses, could move around his shop and literally not say one word or get in his way all damn day as they worked on their own projects. Thor, Clint, and Steve on the other hand were chatty Cathies. Pepper, Tasha, Betty, and Jane tended to avoid his work space at all costs so them being in the house during the day didn't bother him much either… The workshop was his ultimate man cave and he refused to share it with anyone he didn't want to; right now he was thinking of restricting access to just Pepper, Bruce, and Tori for when the others got home at night.

Sighing as his music, and no other sound, kicked in above him, the ex-playboy moved toward his workbench. On approach he noticed some schematics that were rolled up on his desk but couldn't for the life of him remember what they were for. Unrolling them his eyes got wide.

The first titled 'You Got a Bun in My Oven' and below it was a picture of oven, made completely from positive pregnancy tests. Smiling he looked at the blueprint below it and found it was titled 'Dad's Next Super Secret Project!' and was very detailed schematics and ideas for baby proofing the sitting area of the workshop; based on some of the ideas he was sure that Pepper had some mandating in his daughter's plans.

Hearing the door open he turned to spot Pepper, flashing her a hundred watt smile before running over and sweeping her up in a kiss. After a moment he leaned down and pulled up her shirt, kissing her stomach and standing back up, "Where's Tori? She didn't leave did she?"

"No, God no! She's upstairs waiting for my go ahead."

"Go ahead for what?" Tony asked, worried.

"Come on and see," Pepper said, smiling as she pulled him up the stairs.

Once they got up there, Tori wandered over to Tony giving him a hug and he could tell she was excited because she was almost vibrating.

"Alright, you can call your bestie and we've got to call the team," Pepper said.

Tori was a lot faster than either adult as she pulled out the phone and started to dial Peter. Though they both thought she was calling Cass, she didn't see the need to clarify. The teen went dancing from the room as the phone rang.

"_What's up?"_

"I'm gonna be a big sister! I'm gonna be a big sister! I'm gonna be a big sister!"

Though the chant continued Tony ignored Tori as the girl went dancing to her room and turned to his wife, "We have our doctors' drug tested, right?"

When the team got the message to come home or Tony was going to kill them, everyone assumed that someone had broken something important or messed something up and were pointing fingers the second they walked in the door. Tony quickly told them, "No one did anything you guys just needed to know that… Pepper's pregnant!"

The girls all jumped and squealed, having a complete and utter fit over the pregnant woman. Thor said that the men of Asguard were not allowed to congratulate maidens until they began to show because husbands were afraid of men trying to harm the women and children but Tony assured him that he trusted the big guy and it was fine for him to be near Pepper. Clint, in a uncharacteristic show of affection, gave them both a hug and was excited for them. Bruce was the most unexpected, hugging them both then kneeling down to talk to the baby.

"Okay, here's the thing," Bruce said, "Your dad and sister are like the solid south; I can't get a word in edge wise. The way I see it if me and you form an alliance…"

Tony laughed and pulled the man away, "No way dude! It's gonna be three on one when this one gets here; learn to deal with it!"

Bruce grunted, "I'm going back in India."

…

I love this chapter so much! Everyone loves a Stark Baby! Review!


	20. Chapter 20

Yeah, let's have some fun! Make sure to review!

...

It wasn't until November that it all went to hell. The month started out just fine; Tori was in school and Pepper's due date was April 30th. Tony and his daughter had almost finished baby proofing his lab here in Boston, under the careful and watchful eyes of his mother-hen wife.

Pepper had more mandates then a baby book but he couldn't really blame her… things did tend to go boom in his 'man cave' and if he wanted the kid in there he was going to have to be a lot more careful. Tori hadn't even been allowed in the lab until she was four so that she could run and duck if anything started going wrong… that usually meant if something started beeping.

Regardless of how many regulations she had when his wife called him crying Tony knew that it wasn't good, "Pep, calm down and talk to me!"

"Tony, the house was attacked, so were the Avengers bases here, in California, and the helicopter. Tony, the Anti-Avengers weapons were taken from the helicopter vault!"

She was panicking and he couldn't rightly blame her, he was shaken himself, "Everything will be fine; where are you?"

"The team and Fury are at the apartment; luckily it wasn't hit."

He left the office and sped all the way to the apartment, grabbing both his wife and daughter when he stepped through the door, "Are you two okay?"

"We're fine… Tony, he's got the weapons. If you try to fight Loki…" Pepper stuttered, obviously scared out of her mind, and there was something else that he couldn't quite place.

"We'll find a way Pepper. Where's the team?"

"In the conference room"

Five minutes later the conference room, which Tori was sitting in with the rest of the wives, was officially a war zone.

"We can't fight him as long as he has those weapons!" Clint growled.

"We have the antidote and surely we can get the Loki weapon back!" Steve said, "He has no antidote so he's at the bigger risk!"

"We don't have time to make any more of the antidote," Bruce told him, "We have one and it's surely not going to be able to fend off the affects from all six weapons."

"You have nothing to worry about," Tori told them, pulling the hand that Pepper was clinging to away.

"You don't understand Tori," Nick Fury told her with a little bit of condescension.

"No you don't understand," Tori hissed, the tone drawing all eyes to her, "but I'm not a member of your team and I don't answer to you."

She took a deep breath, preparing herself for whatever the reaction might be, before turning to her father, "When I sent those weapons to Shield six months ago, I sent duds… They look like the real thing but will fall apart almost as soon as they're fired and the serum in them, should you get stuck by some miracle, is nothing but saline and iodine."

Fury growled, "And the virus and antidotes?"

Tori looked at him, "The virus and antidote for the Hulk are duds, the antidote for the AA serum is real but it's pointless to have unless you've got the real serum, which you only had for one weapon, the Loki weapon."

"Where are the real weapons?" Fury demanded.

Tori just snorted.

"Why didn't you tell _me_," Tony said, standing up, "I don't care about the rest of them but dammit Tori, I'm your father. If you didn't want everyone to know then you should have at least told me!"

"I was scared!" the girl practically screamed, "If I said it to you it felt too real! And if you can't figure out why I was scared then you need to hand over your genius card because those privileges have been revoked... I hadn't seen you for years and then I saw that you'd been taken on the tv and I felt like I lost you all over a fucking gain!"

Tony quickly grabbed her by the back of the neck, trying to calm her hysterics, and drew her close to his chest, "I'd never let that happen to you, Vittoria."

After a few minutes, Thor spoke up, "So we will be able to use the weapon on Loki and give him the antidote once he is detained?"

"Yes, both will work, as long as you can get the weapon back."

It was as the team started making plans to retrieve the weapon that the door flew open. Before anyone knew what was happening both Pepper and Betty were being held to the wall behind them by some sort of blue light and all the Avengers were facing off with Loki himself.

"Well, I would say congratulations, Man of Iron, but let's see if you're going to get to have your baby first," the god of mischief cackled.

"You son of a bitch, let her go!" Tony ordered while Bruce fought to remain calm until there was a plan of action.

"That's up to you," Loki said as the Loki weapon came floating into the room.

Everyone was paying so much attention to the Asguardian that no one saw Tori start typing on her skype.

_Loki in my apartment, help!_

"You and Dr. Banner are going to dismantle this little weapon or I am going to make sure that you lose both of these women… What do you say?"

Tony was starting to panic, "They can't be dismantled."

"Maybe I'll give you some encouragement," Loki said as suddenly the Hawkeye and Black Widow weapons came flying into the room, and were triggered. The god seemed surprised when they dismantled and layed in pieces around the two master assassins but then he laughed, "Of course, duds. Is this one a dud too?"

"Try it and find out," Tony suggested, though he wasn't expecting it to work.

"Ahh, I think not. Regardless, the two of you are going to dismantle the weapon, or your wives will suffer the consequences."

"It can't be dismantled," Bruce tried to clarify Tony's earlier statement, "We were barely able to build that one, much less take it apart without triggering it."

"You created this weapon," Loki hissed, "I know that you can take it apart."

"They didn't create them, I did," Tori told him, "I can take it apart."

"Tori!" Tony growled, trying to step forward but suddenly he and the rest of the Avengers were pinned to the wall as well.

Loki looked at her, "If you are lying to me, you will regret it."

Tori took a deep breath, "I thought that you of all people would know; just because my family is filled with a bunch of martyrs doesn't mean that I'm one too."

Loki smiled at the girl and instantly decided one thing above all others; she would be his queen, "It's been a long time since I met someone with some common sense; you're a credit to your galaxy. Take it apart and no harm will come to them."

It took almost four hours for Tori to dismantle the weapon. Loki kept talking to her, shamelessly flirting, at which point her father would threaten him and the villain ask if she was sure that she didn't want him to get hurt. All of them asked her not to do this several times over the course of the hours, telling her that they weren't worth his wrath, that they weren't safe from him even if she did this, and that she was more of a hero then she was giving herself credit for. The mad man would correct everything and was well under the impression that he had the girl wrapped around his little finger.

Finally she cut the last wire and Loki stepped up next to her, reaching a hand out to caress her face, "Flawless."

He began to lean in towards her, seeking a kiss from the woman he was quickly becoming obsessed with, but then sticky string hit him in the chest and sent him flying back to the wall, pinning him there. With his concentration broken, his captives fell to the ground, Betty and Jane grabbing Pepper to help protect the baby.

"Do you have ANY idea how close you were cutting it, PARKER?"

"Hey, hey," Peter exclaimed in his full Spiderman outfit, "Show a little gratitude! I could have stood there and made you kiss the little whelp but no I took the high road and spared you!"

Tori burst into tears, where she had been keeping it together for so long, and jumped in her favorite arachnid's arms. While Peter worked to calm Tori down, Tony moved to hold Pepper, before dragging her with him over to Tori, gently taking her from Parker, who he'd interrogate later, so that he could insure himself that she was okay.

Betty was sobbing in Bruce's arms and Jane was holding it together pretty well as her god boyfriend moved to examine his little brother, who was now completely encased in the web material from the red man's wrist.

"What is this trapping case? Does it harm my brother?"

"I'm about to harm your brother!" Tori threatened, still shaken as she buried her head back into Peter's chest.

"Alright, Parker, while Thunderbolt clears out his lesser half, me and you are gonna go have a drink and talk," Tony told the young superhero.

Once everyone was back at his house, which was safe enough to sleep in now that the threat was eliminated, Tony drug Peter out of the balcony.

"Explain, beginning to end. I've had enough surprises today."

"Okay, well… umm... okay, so…"

"Out with it!"

"When that spider first bit me I didn't understand what was happening so I went online to a chat room and found someone called PrincessAtom; she was able to explain everything to me… We stayed in touch and one summer I went to Italy. Hal had broken up with Tori because he became a Lantern and this other girl he'd been sniffing around started showing intrest because he was a superhero. Whatever we had only lasted for the summer because I was stupid enough not to make a move and the green douche came crawling back to her."

"A lot of good that did," Tony growled.

"Tell me about it. Well anyway, we've stayed best friends and then one day, even though we still talked on the phone, her skype name just disappeared and she said she'd closed her account, so I didn't think anything of it. I swear to God, Tony, it's just a miracle that I never said her name when you first connected me with her on skype again because I thought you knew just as much as I thought that the sky was blue. So I called her on it but she had some pretty damn good reasons why she didn't want anyone to know… I own that I went along with it."

"Take a breath, I'm not really mad," Tony conceded, "I was hurt when I thought that she didn't trust me enough to tell me, but then she told me that it was just because she was scared. And I was terrified that everything she'd been through had turned her into who she portrayed herself to be to Loki, but looking back I can see that she was playing him. When you came in and saved her in a way none of us could… thank-you for that, Peter."

"Anytime… a little warning would be nice next time though."

"I'll make sure the next near death experience is scheduled a head of time."

"That's all I'm asking for," Peter said.

Tony just shoved the kid back toward the living room where everyone was congregated, "Peter, one more thing. I swear to God, anymore surprises, in any capacity, I'm going to castrate you."

…..

Woo-Hoo! Team Spidey Forever! Review!


	21. Chapter 21

I'm dedicating this chapter to Little Weasley Girl!

...

Five year after Tori came back into his life, Tony could very easily say that he was the happiest man on the earth. The team was still together, both teams actually. Both his own team of Pepper, Rhodey, and Tori was still fighting crime, while the Avengers still assembled to handle the world wide problems.

William Howard Stark had been born April 28th, 2013 and had just turned four. For a party he had asked that his family, which meant both teams, go to Venice, Italy for the yearly Carnival and couldn't be persuaded to go anywhere else by his big sister, no matter how much Tori begged. The girl had resigned herself to her fate and was now sitting in the back of Tony's private jet listening to her brother's latest idea for a genetic recreation of a prehistoric animal.

"…So the only animal that is near the Smilodon in size is the liger," Will explained to his sister.

"But they only exist in captivity," Tori pointed out.

Will shook his head, "That's only in the wild sector; there are several private studies on reservations in Africa that have third and even fourth generation ligers that have been successful in the wild!"

"How did they manage the introduction into the wild?"

"There was only one lioness left on the Liuwa Plain in Africa and because of her loneliness they were able to put a litter of ligers into her care. A few years later, after those ligers had been successful they inserted another litter that was unrelated to the first and then the two started to breed and they've since added other litters to gain a larger gene pool," Will explained.

Tori thought about it for a moment, "Okay, continue."

"There is a genetic mutation in ligers that caused the first generation to supersede the growth of their parents and the second and third generations have since stabilized at that weight. Their weight and build is all but identical to that of the Smilodon, or Sabre-tooth cat, with one key difference."

"The teeth?"

"Exactly! But see there is another cat, called the Clouded Leopard and it has the longest teeth to body ratio of the modern cats. If those genetics could be brought into the pool with the liger, the same gene that caused it's size to double from the tiger and lion it came from…"

"It could make the size of the teeth grow to prehistoric standards," Tori finished for him.

"That's it! And, specialist speculate that, based on the terrain the Smilodon lived in, it's coat was probably spotted, much like the Clouded Leopard. So, the genetically dominant spots will probably help to create an exact replica of the Sabre-tooth cat! I figure if I can go to Africa to do my doctorate…"

"No," Pepper shouted from the front of the jet, "No Africa, no Asia, no South America, and no Poles! It's either North America or Europe!"

Will rolled his eyes, "So, _when_ I go to Africa to get my doctorate…"

Though the boy didn't seem to notice as he continued his explanation, his mother slammed her paper down and glared at the back of his head. Her husband was sitting beside of her, shaking with laughter, which only proceeded to turn her glare in his direction, "He is _your _son!"

"With his mother's beautiful eyes," Tony batted dark brown orbs at her.

"Flattery will get you nowhere. Go and tell him he's not allowed to go to Africa," Pepper demanded.

"Hey guys," Steve looked up from his paper as the plane landed, calling everyone's attention to him, "Did you know that Tony may run for President?"

Everyone, including Tony, laughed so hard that they couldn't even breathe, "Yeah, right! I'll run for President when I decide that I can't take Fury anymore and want to give him a heart attack!"

"I don't know," Jane said seriously, "You've got so many titles at this point, don't you want to add President Stark to the list?"

"No, I'm good," Tony said, "Being Tony Stark, ex-playboy, genius, billionaire, philanthropist, Dad and Iron man is more than enough!"

"Oh, yeah," Tori said, "Well you better clear a slot because you're adding Grandpa on March 14th."

Everyone froze and looked at Tony who was wide eyed and the billionaire slowly began to turn a death glare on Peter Parker.

"Oh look at that," the photographer said, "My spidey senses are tingling; gotta go."

The kid ran off the plane and started swinging through the planes and buildings of Italy. He made it about half a mile away when the air around him started to kick up and a roar of mechanics broke out behind him, lasers flying over his head.

"PARKER!"

Back on the plane Pepper was gathering she, Tori, and Will's things while the rest of the team ran to keep Iron Man from making real on his threats of becoming a super villain. Walking down the ramp the red head looked at her son.

"Hey, weren't sabre-tooth tigers native to North America?"

"Yeah, a lot of bones have been found in Los Angeles, California," Will told her.

"So where would you release them if you could recreate them?"

"Back into their natural habitat!"

"Yeah, no! You're not recreating the Sabre-tooth Tiger."

"WHY NOT?"

"I will not tolerate a bunch of prehistoric felines running around my grandchildren; your sister's kids or yours."

"Ahh, Mom!"

…..

I have a short Epilogue next, so stay tuned just a little while longer! I know that it's a quick ending but I do promise a sequel... a lot has just started happening so it had to be done. The sequel will probably take place3 between this chapter and the Epilogue. Thank-you to everyone who read and reviewed! Review!


	22. Chapter 22 Epilogue

__Turns out I told a little lie! I've decided to dedicate this whole story to Little Weasley Girl! Thank-you so much for all your encouragement and making me smile everyday with your reviews!

_..._

_May 4, 2036_

_Today the successful opening of the Stark National Prehistoric Park will be forever known as the day that the Sabre-tooth tiger was brought back from the dead. The park is located in California and is 10, 000 sq mi. Dr. William Howard Stark effectively recreated the long extinct Smilodon, the work earning him two doctorate degrees, one in genetics and the other in Zooarchaeology. The large feline was not the only animal the young doctor was able to recreate; others included the Dire Wolf, Short Faced Bear, Giant Sloth, and Big Tooth Shark or Megalodon._

_The opening took place just two weeks after the inauguration of Dr. Stark's father, Anthony E. Stark into the white house along with his Vice President Nick Fury. The Vice President graciously maintains his duties as the director of the agency known as Shield and both men gave speeches at the celebration following the cutting of the ribbon. Both gave their unyielding support to the next generation of superheroes recognized at the ceremony._

_After the parks opening ceremony, the reception began, celebrating the retirement of one superhero generation and the entrance of the next. Superheroes including the original Batman, the Green Arrow, and the Avengers team and each of their sidekicks have officially passed the torch to their hand chosen replacements, who will now protect the world from danger. Of course the superheroes who have protected us for so long will continue to be consultants for our new heroes._

_The next generation includes both Dr. William Stark, who will be taking over his father, Iron Man's roll; he will be known quite fittingly as the Iron Smilodon. The Iron Smilodon's suite is Gold and Black. Fighting beside him will be his niece, Maria Parker, also known as the Iron Arachnid and the twins, Thorion and Jocylin of Asguard._

_The debut of the four young superheroes isn't to be worried about by the public, as they will be under the training of Will's big sister and my wife, Princess Atom, better known as Tori Stark, the Red Arrow, aka Conner Queen, and Spiderman. Joining the other well trained superheroes will be the new Batman and his wife, Batwoman, Jason and Cassandra Todd._

_We wish the best of luck to our new superheroes and want nothing but happiness for those who have saved us from danger for so long, you've earned a break!_

_From everyone here at the Daily Bulge,_

_Senior Editor & Owner_

_Peter Parker_


End file.
